Russia’s Vladimir Putin sounded positive Thursday on the eve of his talks with President Donald Trump in Alaska, saying he believed the American leader was making “quite energetic and sincere efforts” toward peace in Ukraine.
A day ahead of their summit, Putin convened a meeting of advisers “to inform you about how the negotiation process on the Ukrainian crisis is going,” the Kremlin said in a readout translated by NBC News.
The Russian leader said the Trump administration “is making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the fighting, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict.”
Those efforts are intended “to create long-term conditions of peace between our countries and in Europe, and in the world as a whole,” he added, particularly if the negotiations extended to cover strategic offensive weapons treaties.
This suggests that a deal on nuclear arms control could be part of the talks. Russia suspended its participation in the New START “reduction in strategic offensive arms” agreement in 2023.
The summit has prompted howls of dismay and anxiety across Ukraine and Europe, which have not been invited to the talks and fear what the American president may agree with his Russian counterpart about the conflict raging on their continent.
They have been confined to their own diplomatic scrambling, including dozens of calls between Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy and other leaders, culminating in a video call between these parties and Trump himself Wednesday.
Zelenskyy said that Putin “is bluffing” in saying he wants peace.
Trump said afterward that he had assured his Euro-counterparts that there would be “very severe consequences” — without elaborating what those might be — if Putin did not agree to end the war during their sit-down discussion.
Two European officials and three other people briefed on the call told NBC News that he told them he would not discuss possible divisions of territory with the man flying in from the Kremlin.
The post Putin praises Trump peace efforts ahead of Alaska summit appeared first on NBC News.
