WASHINGTON DC – US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Russia would face “very severe consequences” if Russian leader Vladimir Putin does not agree to a peace settlement for the war in Ukraine after their planned meeting on Friday.
The comments came after his call with European partners and President Volodymyr Zelensky to coordinate positions ahead of Friday’s talks in Alaska with Putin, with all parties ostensibly agreeing that a ceasefire is a precondition for any further talks.
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“I don’t wanna say, but there will be very severe consequences,” Trump told reporters at the Kennedy Center, confirming the meeting with Putin is a “first meeting” to “find out where we are.”
He added that a second, more productive meeting would be contingent on the outcome of Friday’s talks.
Trump again blamed his predecessor, Joe Biden, for the war, calling Moscow’s invasion “Biden’s war.”
He said “this war would have never happened” under his leadership, adding that his goal is to “fix it.”
He also called Wednesday’s calls with Zelensky and European leaders “very good” and “friendly,” rating it a “10” – presumably on a scale from one to 10. He also reiterated a claim that he had previously taken NATO defense spending from 2% to 5%, a figure he says represents “trillions of dollars in defense capability.”
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Additionally, he claimed to have “stopped five wars in the last six months” and “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capability, an assertion that has been previously disputed by international bodies and intelligence officials.
Asked if he believed he could convince Putin to stop targeting civilians in Ukraine, Trump said he had that conversation with the Russian leader and tacitly acknowledged that it went nowhere.
“Well, I’ll tell you what I’ve had that conversation with him. I’ve had a lot of good conversations with him. Then I go home and I see that a rocket hit a nursing home, or a rocket hit an apartment building, and people are lying dead in the state,” Trump said.
“So I guess the answer to that is no, because I’ve had this conversation.”
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