Trump casts doubt on Putin-Zelenskyy sit-down

President Trump said his hoped-for meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy might not happen.

“I don’t know,” Mr. Trump said when asked about it in an interview published Saturday with The Daily Caller.

However, Mr. Trump did insist that a trilateral meeting among him, Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelenskyy was still on the table.

“A tri would happen. A bi, I don’t know about, but a tri will happen. But, you know, sometimes people aren’t ready for it,” Mr. Trump said. He then compared the Russia-Ukraine war to children fighting on the playground.

“Sometimes they have to fight for a little bit before you can get them to stop. But this has been going on for a long time. A lot of people are dead,” Mr. Trump said.

He said it’s critical for the two leaders to sit face-to-face to end the war that began in February 2022.

After meeting with Mr. Putin in Alaska and Mr. Zelenskyy in Washington this month, Mr. Trump insisted a talk between the two would be possible within a couple of weeks.

He began making arrangements, but no such meeting is imminent.

Earlier this week, special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is meeting with Russia and Ukraine to broker a sit-down, insisted the two sides will get together.

“We talk to the Russians every day,” Mr. Witkoff said on Fox News. “I think that we may end up seeing a bilateral meeting.

“My own opinion is that [Mr. Trump] is going to be needed at the table to finish a deal,” he added.

The Kremlin has outright rejected Mr. Trump’s proposal that Mr. Putin meet with Mr. Zelenskyy, saying Russia considers the Ukrainian leader “illegitimate.”