He threatens again if there is no progress in peace in the next two weeks in the next two weeks, expressing his frustration for Moscow a week after meeting with the Russian president at.
“I will decide what to do, and it will be a very important decision, whether it will be heavy sanctions or high duties or both, or if we do nothing and say ‘it’s your own matter,'” Trump said.
The US president expressed his dissatisfaction with Russia’s attack on a US factory in Ukraine this week, which caused a fire and injury to workers.
“I am not pleased with it, nor with anything to do with this war,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Ukraine President Volodimir Zelenski, for his part, said Friday that Russia is doing everything it can to prevent a meeting between him and Putin, while the Russian Foreign Minister noted that the agenda is not a meeting.
Zelenski has repeatedly invited Putin to meet him, arguing that this is the only way to find a solution to end the war. Trump had stated that he began preparing for a Putin meeting with Zelenski after a telephone contact with the Russian leader on Monday, following their meeting in Alaska on August 15.
Zelenski accused Russia of being stuck. “The meeting is one of the keys to end the war,” he said in a press conference in Kiev with NATO Secretary -General Mark Rutte. “”. Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, told the NBC that there was no agenda for such a meeting.
“Putin is ready to meet Zelenski when there is a ready agenda. “, He said.
This statement reiterated Moscow’s well -known rhetoric that a meeting of leaders is impossible if certain conditions are not met.
Asked about Lavrov comments and the next steps, Trump replied: “We’ll see. We will see if Putin and Zelenski will work together. It’s a bit like oil with vinegar do not go very well for obvious reasons. “
‘Putin can come to the World’
Trump had withdrawn the possibility of sanctions before his meeting with Putin. But at the same event in the White House, where he referred to possible sanctions, he showed a photo of his meeting with Putin on the Alaska red carpet, saying the Russian president wishes to attend the 2026 World Cup in the US.
“I’ll sign it for him. They sent me a photo, and I thought you would like to see it. He is from a man called Vladimir Putin, who I think will come, depending on what will happen. It can come, may not, we will see, “Trump said.
Its comments did not mention the fact that Russia has been excluded from international events such as the World Cup after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and does not participate in the 2026 tournament to host US, Canada and Mexico.
During his visit to a nuclear research center, Putin said Trump’s leadership abilities could help restore US -Russia relationships. “With the arrival of President Trump, I believe that there was finally a light at the end of the tunnel. And now we had a very good, meaningful and honest meeting in Alaska, “he said.
The front in Ukraine
At the same time, thousands of Ukrainian citizens have been killed by the Russian invasion of 2022, and analysts estimate that more than a million soldiers on both sides have been killed or injured. The battles continue continuously, with both sides hitting energy facilities.
which still controls in two east areas, while proposing to “freeze” the front line in two southern regions that considers its own and possibly return small sections of other territories.
Zelenski, meanwhile, has abandoned the demand for a long ceasefire as a prerequisite for a summit, though he has made it clear that Ukraine cannot negotiate “under the barrel of the weapon”.
At a press conference with Rutte, the Ukrainian president said they discussed his country’s security guarantees, which-as he said-should be corresponding to Article 5 of NATO, which predicts that an attack on a member state is equivalent to attacking everything.
For his part, Rutte stressed that NATO and Ukraine allies are working together to ensure that security guarantees are strong enough for Russia to dare again. “Robust security guarantees will be necessary, and this is what we are now working to finalize,” he said.
