US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin were going to set up a meeting to try to reach a ceasefire to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Trump and Putin held three-hour long talks in Anchorage, Alaska, but no agreement to resolve or pause Moscow’s war in Ukraine was reached.
However, both leaders hailed the meeting as “productive.”
Interviewed by Fox News’ Sean Hannity after talks with Putin, Trump said: “Now, it’s really up to President Zelensky to get it done. And I would also say the European nations, they have to get involved a little bit. But it’s up to President Zelensky... And if they’d like, I’ll be at that next meeting.”
“They’re going to set up a meeting now between President Zelensky and President Putin and myself, I guess.”
There was no immediate reaction from Kyiv to the summit, the first meeting between Putin and a U.S. president since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2024.
When asked by Hannity what he would advise Zelensky, Trump said, “Gotta make a deal.”
“Look, Russia is a very big power, and they’re not,” Trump added. The war has killed or injured well over a million people from both sides, including thousands of mostly Ukrainian civilians, according to analysts.
Trump also said he will not have to think of retaliatory tariffs on countries buying Russian oil right now but may have to soon.
“Well, because of what happened today, I think I don’t have to think about that,” Trump told Hannity.
“Now, I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don’t have to think about that right now. I think, you know, the meeting went very well.”