Trump says he isn’t surprised Putin skipped high-stakes Ukraine peace talks
By Steven Nelson, Diana Glebova and Emily Crane
Trump's final Ukraine peace deal pitch | Reporter Replay
ABU DHABI — President Trump said Thursday he wasn’t at all surprised Russian President Vladimir Putin was snubbing peace talks with Ukraine – insisting “nothing’s going to happen” until he meets with him personally.
Trump, who had pushed for Putin to sit down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Turkey later on Thursday, made the remarks as he brushed off the Russian leader’s decision to skip the high-stakes talks.
“Look, nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together. Okay?” Trump said aboard Air Force One when asked about the upcoming meeting.
Vladimir Putin
Russia said Vladimir Putin had zero plans to attend the Ukraine peace talks in person.
POOL/AFP via Getty Images
“And obviously, he wasn’t going to go. He was going to go — but he thought I was going to go. He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there,” he continued.
“And I don’t believe anything’s going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together. But we’re going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying.”
Asked about Putin’s decision to send a second-tier team of aides in his place, Trump said: “I’m not disappointed in anything.”
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“Why would I be disappointed? We just took in $4 trillion and he says ‘are you disappointed about a delegation?'” the president said, referring to business deals announced as part of his three-nation tour of the Middle East.
Earlier, the commander-in-chief had floated the idea of traveling to Istanbul if enough progress was made between the Kyiv and Moscow delegations.
“If something happened I would go on Friday if it was appropriate,” Trump told reporters in Qatar following a business roundtable.
The US is pushing for a direct meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin.
The US is pushing for a direct meeting between Zelensky and Putin.
AFP via Getty Images
He noted, too, that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was already there repping the US.
It comes after Putin’s no-show plunged prospects for the talks — which would be the first since the early weeks of the war — into confusion.
While the Russian strongman had zero plans to attend the peace talks in person, the Kremlin said a Russian delegation was there and ready to meet the Ukrainian side.
Asked if Putin would go to Istanbul if Trump showed up, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia didn’t know yet how the negotiations would unfold.
“It is premature to say what kind of participation will be required and at what level because we do not know if the Ukrainian negotiators will show up or not and how the negotiations will go,” Peskov said.
Zelensky, meanwhile, described the Russian line-up as “decorative.”
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“We need to understand what kind of level the Russian delegation is, and what mandate they have and whether they can make any decisions,” he said after arriving in the Turkish capital, Ankara.
Asked what his message to Putin would be, Zelensky said: “I’m here. I think this is a clear message.”
The push for direct talks between Zelensky and Putin comes amid a flurry of negotiations aimed at producing a cease-fire agreement to bring an end to the nearly three-year war.
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