On the eve of a high-stakes summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump vowed Thursday that he would not be intimidated and insisted Ukraine would have a role in any deal affecting its future.
Putin is due to land in Alaska on Friday at Trump’s invitation his first trip to a Western nation since launching the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, a war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
The Kremlin has confirmed the two leaders will meet one-on-one, a format that has stirred unease among European allies who fear Moscow could pressure Trump into a settlement unfavorable to Kyiv.
“I am president, and he’s not going to mess around with me,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I’ll know within the first two to five minutes whether it’s going to be a good meeting or a bad meeting. If it’s bad, it’ll end quickly. If it’s good, we could see peace in the near future.” He placed the odds of failure at “one in four.”
Trump who faced sharp criticism for praising Putin in the past and for siding with him over U.S. intelligence agencies during their 2018 Helsinki meeting stressed that no agreement would be made without Ukraine’s input.
He said he hopes to follow the Alaska talks with a three-way summit alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to finalize any deal.
“The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that’s when they make a deal,” Trump told Fox News Radio. “I don’t want to use the word ‘divvy’ things up… but to a certain extent, it’s not a bad term.”
Zelensky, excluded from the Alaska summit, has denounced it as a reward to Putin and rejected Trump’s calls to cede territory. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also emphasized that any settlement must include “security guarantees” for Ukraine.
Still, Trump has previously aligned with Moscow’s position in opposing NATO membership for Ukraine — a long-standing flashpoint in the conflict.
