Trump thinks Putin will make a deal, Rubio says security guarantees needed

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Thursday he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a deal and that threats of sanctions against Russia probably played a role in Moscow seeking a meeting.

However, he pressed ahead of his earlier views, saying there would be “give and take” on “boundaries and lands.”

Read more: US, Russia eye truce deal that will cement Putin’s gains in Ukraine

On the other hand, Marco Rubio — the top US diplomat — said there was a need for “conversation about security guarantees” for peace in Ukraine.

Trump in an interview on Fox News radio also said he has three locations in mind for a follow-up meeting with Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

US not withdrawing from world, says Rubio

He is scheduled to meet Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday.

NO LAND SWAP

On Tuesday, Ukraine ruled out withdrawing troops from its Donbas region as part of a peace deal with Russia, after Trump suggested both sides would have to cede territory.

“We will not withdraw from the Donbas… if we withdraw from the Donbas today — our fortifications, our terrain, the heights we control — we will clearly open a bridgehead for the Russians to prepare an offensive,” Zelensky told reporters.

And on Thursday, Trump told Fox News radio that any deal on ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would come at a second, three-way meeting involving Zelensky, rather than at Friday’s Alaska summit with Putin.

“The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that’s going to be a meeting where they make a deal. And I don’t want to use the word ‘divvy’ things up. But you know, to a certain extent, it’s not a bad term, okay?” Trump said.

But Trump also knows that the Alaska meeting may not produce what he wants.

He estimated that there was a one in four chance of his summit with Putin ending in failure.

“This meeting sets up the second meeting, but there is a 25 per cent chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting,” Trump said.

SECURITY GUARANTEES

Meanwhile, AFP quoted Rubio as saying that security guarantees for Ukraine needed to be part of peace talks, adding he was hopeful of imminent progress towards ending the war.

He added that “to achieve peace, I think we all recognise that there’ll have to be some conversation about security guarantees.”

On a future ceasefire, he said, “we’ll see what’s possible tomorrow. Let’s see how the talks go. And we’re hopeful.”