WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he hoped Vladimir Putin was going to “be good” and move forward toward ending the war in Ukraine, but conceded it was possible the Russian president doesn’t want to make a deal.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a problem, to be honest with you. I think Putin is tired of it. I think they’re all tired of it, but you never know,” Trump said in an interview with the Fox News “Fox & Friends” program.
Trump spoke the day after hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European leaders at the White House for talks on his peace efforts, a meeting that followed his summit with Putin in Alaska last Friday.
“We’re going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks … It’s possible that he doesn’t want to make a deal,” Trump said, adding that Putin faced a “rough situation” if that were not the case.
After Monday’s talks, Trump had said that he had called Putin to help set up a one-on-one meeting between Putin and Zelenskiy that would be followed by a trilateral meeting to include himself.
Trump said in the Fox News interview he thought relations between Putin and Zelenskiy might be “a little bit better” or else he would not have pursued their one-on-one meeting.
He also cited his own warm relationship with Putin even as he acknowledged the potential for a deal to fall through.
“I hope President Putin is going to be good, and if he’s not, it’s going to be a rough situation. And I hope that …President Zelenskiy will do what he has to do. He has to show some flexibility also,” Trump said.
On security guarantees for Ukraine that Kyiv and its allies are seeking as part of any peace settlement, Trump said that while Europe was willing to commit troops in some form, the United States would not, although it could provide other assistance.
“There’ll be some form of security. It can’t be NATO,” he said. “They’re willing to put people on the ground. We’re willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you could talk about by air.”
Asked what assurances he could give that the U.S. troops would not be on the ground defending Ukraine’s border, he said: “You have my assurance. You know, I’m president.”
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Susan HeaveyEditing by Andrew Heavens and Frances Kerry)
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