WASHINGTON — President Trump said Monday that he plans to tell Russian President Vladimir Putin to “end this war” when they meet Friday in Alaska — and that he will include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the “next meeting.”
“I’m going to be telling him, ‘You’ve got to end this war,’” Trump said at a White House press conference where he announced plans to federalize local police as a part of a crime crackdown in Washington, DC.
Trump confirmed that Zelensky would not be included in this week’s summit — but promised that he would call Kyiv and European leaders after meeting with Putin if the sitdown goes well.
“The next meeting will be with Zelensky and Putin, or Zelensky, Putin and me,” Trump said. “I want to arrange a meeting between the two leaders.”
Trump reaffirmed Monday that any peace deal to end the 41-month-old invasion by Moscow would include changes to territorial lines that Ukraine has bitterly resisted.
“There’ll be some swapping, there’ll be some changes in land,” he said, adding “we’re going to try to get some of that territory back for Ukraine.”
Under Kyiv’s constitution, the ceding of territory must be approved by a nationwide referendum, a fact that Trump expressed frustration with Monday.
“I was a little bothered by the fact that Zelensky was saying, ‘Well, I have to get constitutional approval,’” Trump groused.
“I mean, he’s got approval to go into war and kill everybody, but he needs approval to do a land swap.”
Trump also noted he spoke to Russia-friendly Hungarian President Viktor Orban about the possibility of Ukraine winning a war against Russia — a theory the Hungarian leader scoffed at.
“He looked at me like, ‘What a stupid question,’” Trump said of his conversation with Orban, who the US president called a “very, very smart man.”
“He said, ‘Russia is a massive country, and they win their country, and they win their life through wars,’” Trump went on.
The Alaska meeting will be the first time Trump has seen Putin in his second term, and the first time a US president has spoken to the Russian leader face-to-face since his invasion of Ukraine.
Trump predicted he would know “within two minutes” whether the summit would be a success, and promised that he could walk away from negotiations altogether if the meeting goes awry.
“Now I may leave and say, ‘Good luck,’ and that’ll be the end. I may say, ‘This is not going to be settled.’”
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The mission, Trump said, is to see what Putin “has in mind” for a deal, hopefully one that other leaders can get on board with.
Trump said several times in his comments he would be “going to Russia,” but appeared to be misspeaking about going to Alaska.
The White House did not immediately respond to inquiries from The Post Monday.
