Trump clarifies talks with Putin to be in US state of Alaska, will be preliminary
U.S. President Donald Trump said that talks with Vladimir Putin in the U.S. State of Alaska on August 15 will be preliminary, followed by meetings in bilateral and trilateral formats.
"I'm going to be telling him [Putin] to end this war, I think we will have a constructive conversation," he said at a press conference at the White House. "The next meeting will be with Zelenskyy, or with Putin and Zelenskyy. I will try to return part of the territory to Ukraine," Trump added.
Trump once again said that this is a war that should not have happened and expressed disagreement with the president of Ukraine.
"I get along with Zelenskyy, but, you know, I disagree with what he has done. I very, very severely disagree. This is a war that should have never happened," the president said.
"Zelenskyy said he has to get constitutional approval [regarding Ukrainian territories]. He has gt approval to go into war and kill everybody, but he needs approval to do a land swap, because there'll be some land swapping going on," Trump added.
Trump said that according to sociological research, 88% of Ukrainians want a peace agreement and allowed the possible withdrawal of the United States from the negotiations.
"I may leave and say, 'Good luck to you.' And that will be the end of it. It's not up to me to make a deal between Russia and Ukraine," Trump said.