WASHINGTON DC – President Donald Trump attempted to soothe ruffled Ukrainian and European feathers by describing his Wednesday conversation with them as “very good…I would rate it a 10”. But during a rambling appearance at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, he also underscored that the outcome of Friday’s superpower summit in Alaska remains deeply uncertain.
Trump was speaking shortly after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed to have agreed with the US leader a five-point strategy for his talks with Putin. Trump, they said, had agreed that Ukraine must be at the table for any future meetings with Putin, that a ceasefire must be a first step ahead of any fuller negotiations, and that recognising Russian-occupied territory was not on the table regardless of Trump’s talk earlier this week about “land-swapping” that he argued would benefit both countries.
They claimed that Trump had also agreed that Kyiv’s forces must remain free to defend Ukrainian sovereignty, and that the US would embrace wider negotiations only as part of a co-ordinated “transatlantic strategy”. Trump, they said, agreed to make security guarantees for Ukraine a top priority in his conversations with Putin, and also secured his pledge to reject any Russian effort veto Ukraine’s potential membership of Nato.
Merz characterised the call as “a truly exceptionally constructive and good conversation”. Trump did not go that far, and provided absolutely no details to reporters about any promises that he may have made. But he did indicate that he expects swift action from Putin to stand down militarily in Ukraine.
Asked whether Russia “will face any consequences if President Putin does not agree to stop the war after your meeting on Friday”, Trump answered in the affirmative. “There will be very severe consequences”, he said, but refused to provide more details. He may have been referring to his plan, delayed on multiple occasions, to impose fresh sanctions on Russia and apply secondary sanctions on more countries that purchase Moscow’s oil. But he did not indicate how rapidly any of those actions might follow Friday’s summit if it fails to secure any kind of breakthrough.
Trump indicated a determination to try and broker a conversation between Zelensky and Putin. “If the first one goes ok”, he said of Friday’s talks with Putin, “we’ll have a quick second one. I would like to do it almost immediately”. He indicated that he would be willing to broker that conversation, but only “if they’d like to have me there”. Putin’s aides insisted last week that any meeting with Zelensky was still “miles away”.
square HAMISH DE BRETTON-GORDON This is Europe’s last chance to change the course of the Ukraine war
Read More
Trump also sought on Wednesday to manage European expectations about his capacity to influence the Russian leader. Asked whether he could convince Putin to stop targeting civilians in Ukraine, he indicated that he considered that outcome unlikely. “I’ve had that conversation with him”, he said. “Then I go home and I see a rocket hit a nursing home, or a rocket hit an apartment building, and people are lying dead in the street. So I guess the answer is ‘no’, because I’ve had that conversation.”
Amid reports that Russia launched a recent hacking attack that targeted a computer system containing US federal court records, Trump shrugged his shoulders when asked whether he would raise the issue with Putin. “I guess I could, but are you surprised?”, he asked the reporter who raised the issue. “They hack in, that’s what they do. They’re good at it…we’re actually better at it”, the President claimed.
As the President wrapped up, he renewed his promise to brief Zelensky and European leaders as soon his summit with Putin is over. He said the meeting with Putin would help the world “find out where we are, and what we’re doing”. The governments in Kyiv and several European capitals can now only watch and wait, and hope that their voices in Trump’s ear on Wednesday morning are still top-of-mind when he welcomes Putin to Alaska on Friday.
Hence then, the article about trump threatens consequences for putin but we ve seen this show before was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Trump threatens ‘consequences’ for Putin – but we’ve seen this show before )
Also on site :
- Mathura cow vigilante ‘Farsa Wale Baba’ run over by ‘smugglers’ during chase
- Joseph Duggar's Wife Kendra Duggar's Mugshot Revealed After Arrest
- The Wailers and The Pogues Confirm Australian Tours Despite Bluesfest Collapse