WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday that he would try to return territory to Ukraine as he prepares to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and lay the groundwork for a deal to bring an end to the grinding multiyear war between Ukraine and Russia.
“Russia has occupied a big portion of Ukraine. They’ve occupied some very prime territory. We’re going to try and get some of that territory back for Ukraine,” Trump said at a news conference at the White House.
Trump said he’s going to see what Putin “has in mind” to end the war and, if it’s a “fair deal,” he will share it with European and NATO leaders, as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who have been liaising closely with Washington ahead of the meeting.
Asked Monday if Zelenskyy was invited to the meeting Friday with Putin in Alaska, Trump said that the Ukrainian leader “wasn’t a part of it” and that despite his having participated in numerous sitdowns over the course of the war, little has come of them. “I would say he could go, but he’s gone to a lot of meetings. You know, he’s been there for three and a half years — nothing happened,” Trump added.
The president’s first call out of the Putin meeting, which he referred to as “really a feel-out,” would be to Zelenskyy “out of respect.” He noted that he might tell Zelenskyy “‘lots of luck, keep fighting,’ or I may say, ‘We can make a deal.’”
The comments came during a winding press conference to discuss efforts to fight crime in Washington, D.C., with a plan to federalize the city’s police force.
During his remarks, the president noted how even following “a great call” with Putin in the past, “missiles would be lobbed into Kyiv or some other place, and you’d have 60 people laying on a road dying,” a nod to the challenge of reaching a deal.
A follow-up meeting could include Zelenskyy and Putin, and perhaps Trump himself, the president added. He said he would “be there if they need.”
But Trump said a Zelenskyy and Putin meeting was the only way to bring the conflict to a close.
“Now, I will say this, ultimately, I’m going to put the two of them in a room, I’ll be there or won’t be there, and I think it’ll get solved,” the president added.
He said he would like to see a ceasefire and reach the “best deal that could be made for both parties.”
But “there’ll be some swapping, there’ll be some changes in land,” Trump said, returning to the idea of “land swaps,” which he said Friday would be “to the betterment of both.” Zelenskyy, though, has been unwavering in his position that Ukraine should not cede any territory to Russia; European allies have agreed that giving up lands would encourage further Russian aggression.
“The answer to Ukraine’s territorial question is already in the constitution of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said Saturday. “No one will and no one can deviate from it. Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.”
Trump announced last week that he is meeting with Putin on Friday in Alaska as he tries to reach a ceasefire in Ukraine. The White House had initially held out a meeting with Putin and Zelenskyy as a condition for a meeting between Trump and the Russian president to take place, but Trump later said that was not a precondition.
The White House emphasized over the weekend that the priority is the upcoming one-on-one with Putin, even as it weighed the prospect of a future meeting with Zelenskyy.
“Next Friday will be important, because it will be about testing Putin, how serious he is on bringing this terrible war to an end,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said over the weekend on ABC.
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with Putin in Moscow last week ahead of an Aug. 8 deadline that the president had set for the Russian leader to agree to a ceasefire or face new sanctions.
Putin proposed the outlines of an agreement to end the war that would allow Russia to hold sweeping Ukrainian territory, but has not agreed to a ceasefire.
Zelenskyy has urged stronger international pressure on Russia, warning against concessions to Moscow.
“Another week has ended without any attempt by Russia to agree to the numerous demands of the world and stop the killings,” the Ukrainian leader said on X.
“Russia is dragging out the war, and therefore it deserves stronger global pressure. Russia refuses to stop the killings, and therefore must not receive any rewards or benefits. And this is not just a moral position — it is a rational one. Concessions do not persuade a killer. But truly strong protection of life stops the killers,” he added.
