Trump Announces Possibility of Meeting with Putin This Month

Donald Trump, the President of the United States, said on Tuesday, February 19, that it is "possible" he will meet and talk with Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, by the end of this month. He made this statement while leaving a press conference at his residence in Florida in response to a reporter's question about whether he expects to meet with Putin by the end of the month. Trump also stated in his press conference that he supports the deployment of European peacekeeping forces to Ukraine, provided that he can reach an agreement with Russia to end the war. He said, "If they want to do that, great, I fully agree;" and added that the U.S. will not participate in this matter because "we are very far away [from that region]." The U.S. President also expressed dissatisfaction with Ukraine's grievance over being sidelined from the ongoing negotiations between senior U.S. and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia. Trump said in this regard: "I am very sorry to hear that they are unhappy about not having a seat at the negotiations, well, they have had a seat at these talks for three years, and long before that." He also emphasized that he has become "much more hopeful" about ending the war in Ukraine and sees himself capable of bringing an end to this conflict, which began on February 24, 2022. Earlier on Tuesday, the U.S. Secretary of State said Washington is trying to find a "fair" and "sustainable" solution to end the war in Ukraine, but both Moscow and Kyiv must make concessions for peace. Marco Rubio made this assessment after he and other senior U.S. officials met for over four hours in the Saudi capital with Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, and his aides. No Ukrainian or European officials were present at these negotiations. The U.S. Secretary of State said he is "confident" that Moscow is ready to enter a "serious process" to end the war that began nearly three years ago with Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor. Lavrov also had a positive view of these negotiations, stating: "We were not only listening to each other but understanding each other. I have reasons to believe that the American side is beginning to better understand our positions." Tens of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, along with Ukrainian civilians, have been killed in this war, which is considered the largest conflict in Europe since World War II, and thousands more have been displaced. The agreement between the U.S. and Russia on ending the war in Ukraine and normalizing relations is crucial. Russia claims that joining the European Union is Ukraine's right, but joining NATO is not.