‘Could fail’: Trump talks of ‘divvying things up’ ahead of Putin meet

The comments came after Kremlin confirmed the two leaders’ plan to meet one-on-one, raising concerns among European allies that Moscow could push Washington into a settlement imposed on Ukraine.

On the eve of the summit, Trump hinted at a second meet and stressed he would not conclude any agreement with Putin without involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the decision-making.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, the US President insisted he would not be intimidated by Putin. “I am president, and he’s not going to mess around with me,” news agency AFP quoted Trump as saying.

Second meeting to ‘divvy things up’

“I’ll know within the first two minutes, three minutes, four minutes or five minutes… whether or not we’re going to have a good meeting or a bad meeting,” Trump added. “And if it’s a bad meeting, it’ll end very quickly, and if it’s a good meeting, we’re going to end up getting peace in the pretty near future.” He gave the summit a one-in-four chance of failure.

Meanwhile, Zelensky, who was not invited to the Alaska talks, has criticised the meeting as a reward to Putin and rejected calls to surrender territory.

Trump, however, said he hopes to meet his Ukrainian counterpart, possibly immediately afterward in Alaska. “The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that’s going to be a meeting where they make a deal. And I don’t want to use the word ‘divvy’ things up. But you know, to a certain extent, it’s not a bad term,” he told Fox News Radio, reported AFP.

High-stakes summit in Alaska

Putin will travel to Alaska on Friday (local time), his first visit to a Western nation since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine that has killed tens of thousands.

Talks are scheduled for 1:00 AM IST (1930 GMT) at Elmendorf Air Force Base, a key US military installation monitoring Russia.

“This conversation will take place in a one-on-one format, naturally with the participation of interpreters,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow.

Trump has previously claimed he could end the war within 24 hours of returning to the White House in January. But his outreach to Putin and pressure on Zelensky to accept concessions have so far failed to yield results.

Diplomatic efforts since Russia’s invasion have largely failed beyond prisoner exchanges. On Thursday, Russia said it returned 84 Ukrainian prisoners in exchange for an equal number of its own captured soldiers.