Trump on talks with Putin: ‘I’m going to tell him you’ve got to end this (Ukraine) war’

Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would not attend Friday’s summit but could be part of a future meeting.

By: Express Web Desk

New Delhi | August 11, 2025 09:56 PM IST

1 min read

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025, in Washington, as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi look on. (AP Photo)

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that his meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin this Friday in Alaska will be a “feel-out meeting” focused on ending the war in Ukraine.

“So I’m going in to speak to Vladimir Putin, and I’m going to be telling him, you’ve got to end this war. You’ve got to end it,” Trump told reporters.

Trump also added that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would not attend Friday’s talks but could be part of a future meeting. He said he would call Zelenskyy first “out of respect” if he believed a fair deal was possible, and would then update European Union leaders and NATO.

“We’re going to see what Putin has in mind,” Trump said, adding that the United States and Russia could one day be trading partners if Moscow “would go toward business instead of toward war.”

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