As Friday’s summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin inches near, the U.S. president is hopeful for a nearing to a resolution to the war between Russia and Ukraine — but he is also prepared for that resolution not to come.
The pair will meet in Alaska, a territory the U.S. purchased from Russia in 1867, per Fox News.
On Thursday, Trump weighed the odds of the meeting being successful.
“There is a 25% chance this meeting will not be a successful meeting,” Trump said on Fox News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show, per Politico’s Playbook.
Even with those odds, Trump hopes this meeting will eventually result in peace for Russia and Ukraine.
“This meeting sets up the second meeting,” Trump said, adding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be involved in that one, Fox News reported.
Zelenskyy is not part of the summit.
Trump said it was likely to include negotiations over land swaps, which Zelenskyy has opposed.
“The goal of this meeting for the president is to walk away with a better understanding of how we can end this war,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “I think the president of the United States getting in the room with the president of Russia, sitting face-to-face rather than speaking over the telephone will give this president the best indication of how to end this war and where this is headed.”
Trump will “sit down and look the Russian president in the eye and see what progress can be made to move the ball forward,” she said on “Fox and Friends,” Politico reported.
And Trump acknowledged it was not up to him to make the deal. He added he would be able tell within the first “two minutes” if a ceasefire was possible, accordingto Fox News.
“I’m not going to make a deal. It’s not up to to me to make a deal,” Trump said. “I think a deal should be made for both (Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy).”
“I’d like to see a ceasefire,” Trump added. “I’d like to see the best deal that could be made for both parties. You know, it takes two to tango.”
“We’re going to see what happens,” Trump said. “And I think President Putin will make peace.”
“We’re not walking out of there with a deal,” a White House official told Playbook’s Dasha Burns Thursday night.
Zelenskyy has said that any decisions to end the war without Ukraine would be impossible.
“Any decisions made against us, any decisions made without Ukraine — they are simultaneously decisions against peace,” Zelenskyy said in a Saturday statement. “These are dead decisions; they will never work. And what we all need is a real, living peace, one that people will respect.”
The meeting is set for 3 p.m. EST.
