Donald Trump insisted Vladimir Putin ‘is not going to mess around with me’ on the eve of their ‘very necessary’ summit.
All eyes will be on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, where the two world leaders are due meet at 8.30pm UK time on Friday.
It will be the first time any major Western leader, aside from Putin’s friend Viktor Orban, has met with the dictator since his illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
From the Oval Office on Thursday night, the US President said he would be able to know if the meeting is likely to prove productive in the first few minutes.
‘If it’s a bad meeting it will end very quickly,’ he said. ‘And if it’s a good meeting we’re going to end up getting peace very quickly.’
Asked if he felt Putin has a ‘strong hand’, Mr Trump said: ‘Well, he came to our country.’
He said he believes the dictator ‘would like to see a deal’ adding: ‘If I weren’t president, in my opinion, he would much rather take over all of Ukraine but I am president and he’s not going to mess around with me.’
For the first time, Trump mentioned European leaders may also be present at any second meeting with Mr Zelensky.
He also blamed Russia for the war, saying: ‘Everybody’s to blame, Putin is to blame, they’re all to blame.’
