Trump says he’ll soon meet with Putin

President Donald Trump said Friday that he’ll be meeting “very shortly” with Russian President Vladimir Putin and previewed terms of a potential peace deal to end the war in Ukraine.

“I’ll be meeting very shortly with President Putin,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “It would have been sooner, but I guess there’s security arrangements that, unfortunately, people have to make,” he continued, adding that Putin would “like to meet as soon as possible.”

Trump said he’d share more details on his administration’s efforts to secure a peace deal, as well as a “popular” location for talks with Putin, “a little bit later.”

The United States and Russia have been working on a potential deal to stop the war in Ukraine that would lock in some of Russia’s gains, a European official and US official tell CNN earlier Friday. The deal is not finalized and could fall through.

The United States has been trying to get allies to agree to this plan, one of the sources told CNN, which came amid the push to secure a summit between Putin and Trump. However, some us officials have expressed concern that Russia will not honor a deal.

“A lot of people are dying, and I think we’re getting very close, and we’re going to be announcing later on, we’re going to have a meeting with Russia — start off with Russia, and we’ll announce the location,” Trump said.

The president, who’d acknowledged frustration with Russia’s president in recent months for drawing out the conflict, seemed more optimistic for the prospect of a peace deal Friday.

“The European leaders want to see peace,” he said. “President Putin, I believe, wants to see peace, and Zelensky wants to see peace.”

He later added: “My instinct really tells me that we have a shot at” peace.

Earlier this week, Trump pledged he’d apply new sanctions on Russia if Putin didn’t end the war in Ukraine by Friday, but he struck a less hardline tone on Thursday, telling reporters in the Oval Office, “It’s going to be up to (Putin)” if the Friday deadline would hold.

Pressed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Thursday if Putin would have to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a prerequisite for a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin, Trump said, “No, he doesn’t.”