United States President Donald Trump has said he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin “very soon” as officials from the countries prepare to meet in Saudi Arabia for talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
“There’s no time set, but it could be very soon,” Trump told reporters on Sunday ahead of talks between US and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia.
“It’ll be soon; we’ll see what happens,” Trump added when asked if a meeting could happen this month.
Addressing reporters after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier sought to temper expectations of a swift end to the conflict, Trump expressed confidence that Putin wants to end the war.
“They have a big powerful machine, you understand that. They defeated Hitler and they defeated Napoleon. They’ve been fighting a long time,” Trump told reporters after a flight on Air Force One.
“They’ve done it before. But I think he would like to stop fighting.”
Asked if he believes Putin wants to seize all of Ukraine’s territory, Trump said he had asked his Russian counterpart the same question and it would be a “big problem for us” if so.
Earlier on Sunday, Rubio said that Putin had expressed his desire for peace in his phone call with Trump last week even as the top US diplomat cautioned that the conflict would not be resolved overnight.
“Now, obviously, it has to be followed up by action. So, the next few weeks and days will determine whether it’s serious or not,” Rubio said in an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation.
“Ultimately, one phone call does not make peace. One phone call does not solve a war as complex as this one.”
Rubio said the specifics of the talks, including the makeup of the Russian delegation, had not been finalised.
“I don’t have any details for you this morning, other than to say that we stand ready to follow the president’s lead on this and begin to explore ways, if those opportunities present itself, to begin a process towards peace,” Rubio said.
Trump’s outreach to Russia has raised concerns in Ukraine and Europe that Washington could be racing to secure a peace plan that concedes some Ukrainian territory with little input from Kyiv or its European allies.
Neither Ukrainian nor European officials are participating in the talks in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, though Rubio on Sunday stressed that Ukraine and Europe would both have to be involved in any “real negotiations” that result from the meeting.
In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press that aired on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would “never accept” any agreement reached without his country’s involvement.
“This is the war in Ukraine, against us, and it’s our human losses,” Zelenskyy said while attending the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
Addressing the Munich conference on Saturday, European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas drew parallels between the Trump administration’s approach and the failure of appeasement in the run-up to World World II.
“As I stand here in Munich tonight, I cannot help but ask, have we been here before? Czechoslovakia,1938,” Kallas said, referring to the Munich Agreement endorsing Nazi Germany’s annexation of the Sudetenland in exchange for a pledge of peace.
“We have an aggressor at our door intent on taking the land that isn’t his. And the negotiators, not us, are already giving away their bargaining chips before the negotiations have even begun.”
European leaders are set to gather in Paris on Monday for an emergency summit to discuss the conflict and future security of Ukraine.
Ahead of the summit, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Sunday that he is “ready and willing” to send British troops to Ukraine to help keep the peace in the event of a deal to end the war.
“I do not say that lightly,” Starmer said in an op-ed published in the Daily Telegraph.
“I feel very deeply the responsibility that comes with potentially putting British servicemen and women in harm’s way.”
“But any role in helping to guarantee Ukraine’s security is helping to guarantee the security of our continent and the security of this country,” Starmer said.
“The end of this war, when it comes, cannot merely become a temporary pause before Putin attacks again.”