Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to be brought into peace negotiations following the U.S.-Russia summit this week.
President Donald Trump, who will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday to negotiate for peace, told reporters on Monday that he would then relay information to Europe to jointly discuss the next steps.
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“I think we’ll have constructive conversations,” Trump said. “Then after that meeting, immediately, maybe as I’m flying out, maybe as I’m leaving the room, I’ll be calling the European leaders, who I get along with very well and I have a great relationship.”
“I’ll be speaking to Zelensky,” he told the press. “The next meeting will be with Zelensky and Putin, or Zelensky and Putin and me. I’ll be there if they need, but I want to have a meeting set up between the two leaders.”
Trump is scheduled to participate in a summit with European leaders on Wednesday ahead of the Alaska meeting with Putin. Heads of state on the Old Continent are concerned that the United States will attempt to push through a deal with the Kremlin that offers too many concessions.
Zelensky maintains that Trump’s proposed “land swaps” must be reviewed and approved by Ukraine, asserting that Russia cannot be allowed to benefit from its invasion.
“Russia is dragging out the war, and therefore it deserves stronger global pressure. Russia refuses to stop the killings, and therefore must not receive any rewards or benefits,” Zelensky wrote in a statement on Monday. “And this is not just a moral position – it is a rational one. Concessions do not persuade a killer. But truly strong protection of life stops the killers.”
The president touted his ability to “get along” with European leaders, including Zelensky, but resurrected past criticisms of the Ukrainian leader, saying he disagrees with what Zelensky has done — “very, very severely disagree.”
“This is a war that should have never happened, wouldn’t have happened,” he said, seeming to reiterate his previously stated belief that Zelensky shares responsibility for the conflict.
Trump most forcefully voiced this criticism of the Ukrainian leader in April, when he said that the nation helped “start a war” that it was incapable of winning.
“You don’t start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles,” Trump said in April. “When you start a war, you’ve got to know you can win.”
“Millions of people dead because of three people,” Trump also said. “Let’s say Putin, No. 1, let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, No. 2, and Zelensky.”
EUROPEAN LEADERS WARY THAT TRUMP-PUTIN SUMMIT COULD END WITH LAND CONCESSIONS
Meanwhile, Trump resumed his affectionate tone when discussing Putin, saying he “thought it was very respectful that the president of Russia is coming to our country, as opposed to us going to his country, or even a third-party place.”
The president’s assessments of Zelensky and Putin have proven extremely mercurial, fluctuating on both sides between ire and fondness depending on the state of diplomatic efforts.