Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump says Russian leader ‘not going to mess around with me’ ahead of Ukraine talks

In his view, this Friday’s summit is about his grand re-entry onto the international stage and a complex psychological interplay with a US leader who is also fixated on what a “win” over ending (or rather stalling) the war in Ukraine would do for his personal brand.

The dynamics of a summit that has already sidelined Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky – and reduced European leaders to holding their own meeting in Berlin – will be driven by the needs of two men with immense but fragile egos.

Read the full analysis here:

The future of Ukraine’s industrial heartland in the east will almost certainly play a key role in talks between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump as they prepare to meet in Alaska on Friday.

Read the full article here:

European officials insisted to CNN that US President Trump come prepared to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin while the pair discuss Ukraine while the country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky is not present.

“He must be prepared because Putin is very, very well prepared,” one European official told the network about Friday’s meeting.

There is a “vulnerability” for Trump to be alone in the room with Putin because the Russian president is “an excellent player,” the official added.

Another official acknowledged the US President has been tougher on Russia recently. On Thursday, for example, Mr Trump threatened “severe consequences” if Mr Putin doesn’t agree to peace in Ukraine.

Still, this official warned: “It seems Trump doesn’t really believe in the possibility of Ukrainian success.”

One day before the two world leaders were scheduled to meet, US President Donald Trump told reporters Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “not going to mess around” with him.

“I am president, and he’s not going to mess around with me,” he said during a press conference at the White House.

“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. 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.”

The US president remained cautiously optimistic that the leaders of Russia and Ukraine “will make peace.”

“We’re going to see what happens,” he said. “And, I think President Putin will make peace. I think President Zelensky will make peace. We’ll see if they can get along and if they can, it’ll be great.”

Meanwhile, earlier in the day on Thursday, Mr Putin praised Mr Trump for making “quite an energetic and sincere effort, in my opinion, to stop hostilities, to stop the crisis and to reach an agreement that is of interest to all those involved in this conflict.”

Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen says he’s worried that Russian President Putin is playing US President Trump like a “fiddle,” he told NBC News.

“I’m always in favor of talking, and we’d all like to see peace, but I’m very worried because, from day one, while Donald Trump said he was going to end the war in Ukraine, he has been played like a fiddle by Vladimir Putin,” Van Hollen told the outlet Thursday.

“All Putin sees is Trump’s weakness, and so I’m very worried that he will throw our allies and the people of Ukraine under the bus, which is what he’s done from day one,” he added.

Mr Trump says he believes Putin is ready to make a deal to end Russia’s war with Ukraine when the two leaders meet in Anchorage in Alaska on Friday.

It is set to be followed by a second meeting involving Volodymyr Zelensky, which could also be attended by European leaders, Mr Trump suggested on Thursday night.

But writing for The Telegraph, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin warned Nato allies against submitting to Moscow’s demands, and said: “Putin doesn’t want a war with Nato because he would lose. So we should not be cowed by his rhetoric or his campaign of sabotage, outrageous as it may be.”

After a meeting at No 10, the prime minister and the Ukrainian president expressed cautious optimism about the prospect of a truce “as long as Putin takes action to prove he is serious” about ending the war, Downing Street said.

Read the full article here:

Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says this deal has “nothing to do” with a land swap.

“There is nothing to swap because all this land is Ukrainian,” the ex-foreign minister told CNN.

“The only viable solution for the land issue, which indeed is the biggest obstacle in negotiations, is to leave this matter in the gray zone, where both sides will claim their title of ownership on this land,” he said.

“If President Putin doesn’t make that concession, these talks are not going to go anywhere.”