Trump says he could meet Putin ‘soon’ as Ukraine, Europe reel from outreach

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United States President Donald Trump has said he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin “very soon” as officials from the countries prepare to meet in Saudi Arabia for talks on ending the war in Ukraine.

“There’s no time set, but it could be very soon,” Trump told reporters on Feb 16 ahead of talks this week between US and Russian officials in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh.

“It’ll be soon; we’ll see what happens,” Trump added when asked if a meeting could happen this month.

Addressing media after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier sought to temper expectations of a swift end to the conflict, Trump said he believes that Putin wants to end the war.

“They have a big powerful machine, you understand that. They defeated Hitler and they defeated Napoleon. They’ve been fighting a long time,” Trump told reporters after a flight on Air Force One.

“They’ve done it before. But I think he would like to stop fighting.”

Asked if he believes Putin wants to seize all of Ukraine’s territory, Trump said he had asked his Russian counterpart the same question and it would be a “big problem for us” if so.