Trump gives summit with Putin 25% chance of failure
Washington
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he's giving his Friday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin a 25% chance of failure.
'There is a 25% chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting,' Trump told Fox News Radio.
'In which case I will run the country, and we have made America great again already in six months.' The US president reiterated that he views this first meeting in Alaska as primarily preparation for a second meeting.
'This meeting sets up the second meeting. The second meeting is going to be very, very important - cuz that's gonna be the meeting where they make a deal and I don't wanna use the word divvy things up but you know to a certain extend it's not a bad term, okay?'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is not invited to the summit in Alaska, has consistently opposed giving up Ukrainian territory that Russia has seized during the war launched by Moscow more than three years ago.
When asked whether Russia would then face consequences such as sanctions, specifically if the tough Senate sanctions bill against Russia would be the focus, Trump responded briefly: 'Oh, certainly.'
He then emphasized that the United States had not lost any soldiers in Ukraine, claiming that if he hadn't intervened, the Russian-Ukraine conflict 'could have been World War III' and repeated his oft-stated claim that his predecessor Joe Biden 'had no clue what was happening' in this war.
The day before, Trump had threatened Putin with 'very serious consequences' if he refused to end hostilities after the meeting.
However, the US president expressed confidence that Putin was coming to Alaska because he wanted to make a deal. He said he would find out very quickly whether that was the case.
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