DNIPROPETROVSK REGION, Ukraine: US President Donald Trump said Friday that he will meet “very shortly” with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the war in Ukraine and that he will announce the location soon.
“We’re going to be announcing later, and we’re going to have a meeting with Russia,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Those comments came as Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield expressed little hope for a diplomatic solution to the war and Trump’s deadline arrived Friday for the Kremlin to make peace.
Exasperated that Putin did not heed his calls to stop bombing Ukrainian cities, Trump almost two weeks ago moved up his ultimatum to impose additional sanctions on Russia and introduce secondary tariffs targeting countries that buy Russian oil if the Kremlin did not move toward a settlement.
Trump’s efforts to pressure Putin into stopping the fighting have so far delivered no progress. Russia’s bigger army is slowly advancing deeper into Ukraine at great cost in troops and armor while it relentlessly bombards Ukrainian cities. Russia and Ukraine are far apart on their terms for peace.
