WASHINGTON DC – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio believes that a lasting peace for Ukraine will take longer than a single summit, as US President Donald Trump prepares for a high-stakes meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Speaking to reporters at the State Department Thursday morning, Rubio said that any comprehensive peace deal would need to address crucial and complex issues.
“To achieve a peace, I think we all recognize that there’ll have to be some conversation about security guarantees,” he said. “There’ll have to be some conversation about... territorial disputes and claims, and what they’re fighting over.”
Security guarantees are among the key demands for Kyiv and Europe following their Wednesday phone calls with US leadership.
Rubio said Trump’s immediate hope for the summit was to “achieve some stoppage of fighting so that those conversations can happen.”
While hopeful, he added, “we’ll see what’s possible tomorrow. Let’s see how the talks go.”
Failure possible, Trump says
Rubio’s comments came as Trump himself offered a more cautious assessment of the meeting, telling Fox News Radio Thursday morning that he saw a “25% chance” of it ending in “failure.”
Trump likened the diplomatic process to a “chess game,” with the main aim being to set up a second meeting involving President Volodymyr Zelensky to “make a deal.”
He suggested such a deal could involve a “give and take as to boundaries, lands.”
Sanctions may have influenced Putin
Trump, who has previously threatened sanctions against Russia, said he believed Putin “wants to get it done.”
He added that new tariffs against India had “essentially took them out of buying oil from Russia,” a move that may have influenced Putin’s decision to agree to the summit.
Trump hints at ‘going home’ if talks fail
Trump also said that if the meeting is successful, he will immediately contact Zelensky to arrange a second meeting.
However, in a stark warning, he stated that if the talks go poorly, “I’m not calling anybody. I’m going home.”
He confirmed that he would hold a press conference regardless of the outcome. While a joint press conference with Putin had not been agreed upon, Trump said it “might be nice to have a joint, and then separates.”
Trum-Putin meeting set for afternoon press conference
Trump and Putin are scheduled to meet in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday afternoon, according to a schedule obtained by Kyiv Post.
The pair is expected to arrive in Alaska in the morning, with their meeting scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. local time (10:30 p.m.).
Following their discussions, the schedule indicates a press conference will be held at 3:30 p.m. local time (2:30 a.m. Kyiv time), where Trump is expected to brief the media on the outcome of their talks.