President Donald Trump revealed breakthrough developments in the Ukraine peace negotiations during a Fox & Friends interview on Tuesday morning, announcing that he has arranged a direct bilateral meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The announcement follows Monday’s White House summit with Zelenskyy and European leaders. Trump emphasized the urgent need to halt casualties in the ongoing conflict.
“I thought I’d first let them meet. They haven’t been exactly best friends… It only matters if we get things done… I hope that President Zelenskyy will do what he has to do. He has to show some flexibility also,” Trump said during the interview.
The President detailed his conversation with Putin about orchestrating the historic meeting.
“I told him that we’re going to set up a meeting with President Zelenskyy, and you and he will meet, and then after that meeting, if everything works out OK, I’ll meet and we’ll wrap it up. It takes, in this case, two to tango. They have to have somewhat of a relationship, otherwise we’re just wasting a lot of time.”
Trump stressed the urgency of immediate action when recounting an exchange at Monday’s summit.
“At the table, one of the gentlemen… he said, ‘Well, let’s meet in another month or two and let’s see if we can start making some …’ I said, ‘A MONTH OR TWO!? You’re going to have another 40,000 people dead in a month or two — you have to do it TONIGHT.’ And I did, actually — I called President Putin and we’re trying to work out a meeting with President Zelenskyy.”
The President expressed cautious optimism about the relations between Putin and Zelenskyy.
“I think the fact that maybe they’re getting along a little bit better than I thought, otherwise I wouldn’t have set up the [bilateral] meeting, I would’ve set up a three — a trilat. But I think they’re doing a little bit better. There’s been tremendous bad blood.”
Trump outlined his vision for securing long-term peace without NATO membership for Ukraine.
“They’re not going to be a part of NATO, but we’ve got the European nations, and they’ll front-load it, and they’ll have, some of them — France, Germany, UK — they want to have boots on the ground. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem, to be honest with you.”
Trump firmly ruled out deploying American forces to defend Ukraine’s borders.
“You have my assurance — and I’m President. I’m just trying to stop people from being killed.”
European leaders appear eager to resolve the crisis, according to Trump.
“They want to get back to leading their countries. They’re consumed with this far more than we are. … There will be some form of security. It can’t be NATO because that’s just not something that would ever, ever happen.”
The President attributed the summit’s success to restored American prestige.
“I think really, they have respect for our country again. A year ago, they wouldn’t have come. They wouldn’t have even thought about it. Now, we’ve become the hottest country anywhere in the world. Everybody wants to be here.”