Trump says he'll soon meet with Putin, 'shot' at ending Ukraine war
Donald Judd
, CNN
The Kremlin says Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin could meet for a summit as soon as next week.
Photo:
AFP
US President Donald Trump has said Friday (US time) that he'll be meeting "very shortly" with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He told reporters at the White House he'd share more details on his administration's efforts to secure a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine "a little bit later."
"A lot of people are dying, and I think we're getting very close, and we're going to be announcing later on, we're going to have a meeting with Russia - start off with Russia, and we'll announce the location," Trump said.
"I think the location will be a very popular one for a lot of reasons, but we'll be announcing that a little bit later."
The president, who'd acknowledged frustration with Russia's president in recent months for drawing out the conflict, seemed more optimistic for the prospect of a peace deal Friday.
"The European leaders want to see peace," he said. "President Putin, I believe, wants to see peace, and [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky wants to see peace."
He later added: "My instinct really tells me that we have a shot at" peace.
Earlier this week, Trump pledged he'd apply new sanctions on Russia if Putin didn't end the war in Ukraine
by Friday
, but he struck a less hardline tone on Thursday, telling reporters in the Oval Office, "It's going to be up to [Putin]" if the Friday deadline would hold.
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