From the Oval Office, shortly before the Alaska summit, Trump is convinced that Putin “will not play with me” / which will be “the most important” meeting

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that European leaders could participate in the meeting they hope to organize between Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, in order to stop the war, reports CNN, Reuters and Sky News. Also, the White House leader showed convinced that Putin “will not play with me” in the discussions at the Alaska Summit.

“The most important meeting will be the second meeting we will have,” Trump said in the Oval Office, a few hours before the Friday summit with Putin, scheduled in Alaska.

Trump wants a meeting between Putin-Zenski in Alaska

Thus, the US president made it clear that he would like to see a second meeting in Alaska, between Vladimir Putin and Volodimir Zelenski.

“I would say that tomorrow (Friday, no), all I want to do is prepare the ground for the next meeting, which should take place soon. … I would like to see that it happens, maybe in Alaska,” said Trump.

“We will have a meeting with President Putin, President Zelenski and me, and maybe we will invite some European leaders, maybe not,” added the head of the White House.

Trump said that he believes that Putin and Zelenski are ready to make peace after more than three years of fighting, although it was complained that the Ukraine war has been more difficult to solve than it was initially expected.

“We will see if they will be understood,” Trump said. “I thought this (the conflict in Ukraine) would be the easiest (to be solved, no). In fact, it is the most difficult,” he said.

Putin and Zelenski “will make peace”, believes the American leader

Also, Donald Trump was asked if he is ready to give Vladimir Putin access to rare minerals to stimulate the Ukraine's war.

“We will see what will happen, we have an important meeting. I think it will be very important for Russia and it will be very important for us that we will save many lives,” the Republican leader replied.

Trump has reiterated that he meets Putin “to save thousands of soldiers (who die) a week.”

“I think it will be a good one,” he continued, referring to the meeting in Alaska.

Trump also told reporters that he thinks Putin and Zelenski “will make peace.”

Trump's answer, asked if he “rewards Putin”

Donald Trump was asked again whether the summit itself or the preconceived incentive for the conclusion of a peace “rewards” Russia even though he invaded Ukraine.

“I think we are in a situation that should not have existed, it should not have existed,” said Trump, avoiding a direct answer.

“It did not start under my mandate and for four years it did not even talk about it. I could anticipate that (the war, no) will happen, after I left I saw what is happening … Everyone is to blame, Putin is to blame,” added the US president.

“I am president and he will not play with me”

During the press conference in the Oval Office, Donald Trump was also asked if Vladimir Putin will have a “strong hand” tomorrow.

“Well, he came to our country,” Trump said.

The White House leader then told reporters that he thinks Putin “would like to reach an agreement.”

“I think that if I were not president, it would occupy all Ukraine, it is a war that should have never taken place,” he added.

And then he continued: “If I were not president, in my opinion, (Putin) he would have the chances of occupying all Ukraine, but I am president and he will not play with me.”

Trump ended the conference, reiterating that he proposed Alaska as the place of the second meeting (the one between Putin and Zelenski), which he would like to organize “very quickly”.

Trump, convinced that Putin “will make an understanding”, but the Kremlin excludes the signing of any document

Previously on Thursday, Donald Trump had stated, at the Fox Radio station, that he is convinced that the Russian leader Vladimir Putin comes to the Tomorrow's summit in Alaska with the intention of reaching an agreement for the conclusion of the Ukraine war.

“I think he is now convinced that he will make an understanding. He will make an understanding. I think so. And we will know, I will know very quickly,” Trump said. Asked if he would provide economic incentives to Russia during the meeting, Trump also avoided giving a direct answer.

“Well, I would prefer not to say, because I do not want to show my books in public, but whatever, economic incentives, and maybe discouragement, are more important, in a way, but economic incentives, you know …,” he said.

Also at the Fox Radio, he estimated a “25%” probability that the summit he will have with a little at a military base near the city of Anchorage to end with a failure, in which, he said, he will see further from the US leadership, suggesting that he will no longer be involved in the negotiated resolution of the Russian war. “Depending on what happens at my meeting (with Putin), I will call President Zelenski and announce him if they can meet,” concluded the American leader.

A day ago, Trump again warned Russia with “very serious consequences” if he does not accept to conclude the war, threatening it with new direct sanctions and sanctions imposed on his commercial partners through secondary customs taxes on Russian oil imports, AFP and Reuters recall.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, the Kremlin said Putin and Trump will approach the Alaska summit “the most complex issues”, the Ukraine war being just one of them, another being strategic stability.

The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, said there are no plans to sign any document at the end of the Alaska summit.

“President Putin and President Trump are ready to discuss and will address the most difficult issues,” he added.