US President Donald Trump admitted on Monday that he cannot guarantee that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will sit down together at a peace summit, warning that "there will be consequences" if the meeting fails.
"I don't know if they're going to meet. Maybe, maybe not. We'll see what happens in a week or two, and if necessary, I'll intervene myself," Trump said from the Oval Office, where he hosted South Korean President Lee Jae-myung.
Just a week ago, after a meeting with Zelensky and several European leaders in Washington, Trump had hinted that a Putin-Zelensky summit was a matter of days and that it would be followed by a trilateral meeting with his presence to push forward a peace agreement.
But Moscow has shown no willingness. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that “there is no meeting planned,” reiterating that such a conversation would only happen when Ukraine gives up its NATO aspirations, cuts off Western arms supplies and accepts a change of government in Kiev.
According to Trump, the reason Putin is avoiding the meeting is “because they don’t get along.” He added that in two weeks, if the meeting doesn’t take place, he will determine who is responsible for the failure.
Meanwhile, Zelensky has publicly agreed to meet with Putin, even dropping the condition of a preliminary ceasefire for talks to take place. Trump also revealed that he spoke again with Putin after the meeting at the White House, mentioning the possibility of opening nuclear disarmament talks with the participation of China.
Trump's meeting with the South Korean president focused on bilateral relations, the military alliance and the regional situation, while the US president did not rule out the possibility of a new meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.