An optimistic President Trump touted “a good level of respect” with Russia’s Vladimir Putin as he jetted to Alaska for a high-stakes Ukraine peace summit.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump sounded upbeat about the chances of a breakthrough that could pave the way to end the bloody 3-1/2 year war.
“We get along, there’s a good respect level on both sides,” Trump said. “I think something’s going to come of it.”
“He’s a smart guy, been doing it for a long time,” he added about Putin. “But so have I. I’ve been doing it for a long time.”
Trump repeated his stance that any final peace deal would have to be hammered out during face-to-face talks between Russia and Ukraine.
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
People gather outside a shopping mall to protest in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday, ahead of a meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Asked whether he would discuss possible territorial swaps between Russian occupiers and Ukraine, Trump said: “I’ve got to let Ukraine make that decision.”
Halfway around the world, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his embattled nation was watching with bated breath to see if the summit could “open up a real path toward a just peace.”
“It is time to end the war, and the necessary steps must be taken by Russia,” Zelenskyy tweeted. “We are counting on America.”
Members of the Russian delegation were mostly tight-lipped as they arrived in Anchorage ahead of the first meeting between Putin and an American president since he invaded neighboring Ukraine in 2022.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sported a retro “CCCP” sweatshirt from the days of the Soviet Union in a possible hint of a hardline stance.
“Our position is clear,” Lavrov said.
Trump is expected to greet Putin on the runway upon his arrival at a U.S. Air Force base scheduled for 11 a.m. local time, which is 3 p.m. in New York.
The face-to-face summit will start soon afterward, followed by a lunch with the two nations’ delegations, officials said.
Both sides have said there will be a joint press conference after the lunch. But Trump said if the meeting does not go well he may talk to reporters alone.
He is expected to jet back out to Washington, D.C. late Friday night.
Although the main talks are expected to only include Trump and Putin, both nations included several other top officials in their delegations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are traveling with Trump.
Putin said he hopes to discuss issues like nuclear arms control and trade as well as Ukraine in what some analysts believe could be an effort to distract Trump from his primary goal of winning agreement for a ceasefire in Ukraine.
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