President Trump Expresses Readiness To Meet Putin Over Ukraine Peace Talks
US President Donald Trump has said he could meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin very soon, adding that he believes his the Russian leader genuinely wants to stop fighting in Ukraine.
Trump stated this while briefing journalists, hours after Secretary of State Marco Rubio sought to play down expectations of upcoming high-level talks in Riyadh on ending the war.
With Rubio set to lead a high-level American delegation at the discussions with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia’s capital in the coming days, a flurry of diplomacy was taking place as the brutal Ukraine war nears its third anniversary.
Trump, addressing reporters after a flight on Air Force One, said his team has been speaking “long and hard” with Russian officials, including his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff whom the president said met with Putin for about three hours recently.
Asked whether he believes Putin wants to seize the entirety of Ukraine, Trump said that would be his question to the Russian leader.
The Republican had repeatedly insisted he would end the Ukraine conflict in a single day if he returned to the White House, but Rubio stressed it would “not be easy” to resolve such a long-running, bloody and complex conflict.
