At the press conference, at the end of the face-to-face meeting in Alaska, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin limited themselves to their statements: first the Russian leader, then the US president. No answers to the journalists' questions. But the tycoon, immediately afterwards, granted an interview to the"friendly" channel Fox News before leaving on Air Force One for the White House. “Putin and I had a excellent meeting, we made progress and agreed on many points,” said Trump, reiterating that “there is still no agreement ” on Ukraine but that the recently concluded summit deserves a rating of “10”.
What's missing? I don't want to say – No agreement on a ceasefire in Ukraine, but" we're close," the US president emphasizes. But what's missing? Trump doesn't want to say:"No, I prefer than no":"I imagine someone will eventually make it public. They'll find out. But no, I don't want to do that. I want to see if we can get it done. You know, it's not a closed deal at all. And Ukraine has to agree to it. I mean, President Zelensky has to agree," he reiterated.
“Now it's up to Zelensky and the Europeans” – What now? “ Now it's up to President Zelensky. And I would also say that the European countries need to be a little involved. But Zelensky will decide,” added Donald Trump in the interview, addressing the Ukrainian president as follows: “My advice? Make a deal.” “I want people to stop dying in Ukraine,” Trump added, also emphasizing that “Putin has spoken very sincerely about his desire to end the war in Ukraine.”
“Territorial swaps agreed” – Speaking on Fox News, Trump implied that sensitive topics related to the war in Ukraine were discussed during the summit with Putin, including possible territorial swaps and security guarantees alternatives to NATO. Commenting on the suggestion made by host Sean Hannity about “some land swaps” and “more territory for Russia” in exchange for security measures for Kiev, Trump responded: “I think those are items that we negotiated, and they are items that we largely agreed on. In fact, I think we agreed on a lot.”
“Soon three-way meeting” – Finally, the US president guaranteed that the three-way meeting with Putin and Zelensky will take place “very soon ”: “They both want me to participate, I will be there,” he added. Donald Trump also made it clear that he does not intend to proceed, at least for the moment, with further sanctions or “serious consequences” against Russia, after having judged his meeting in Alaska “very positive”: “Based on what happened today, I think I don't have to think about it now. Maybe I will have to think about it in two or three weeks, but it's not necessary now.”
The “rigged” 2020 elections – And part of the interview is dedicated to a passage from Putin's speech at the end of the summit: “I'm happy that he said that with me as president there would be no war,” Trump said, returning to attack his predecessor: “ Biden was a terrible president , he should never have allowed this to happen.” Not only that. During the interview, Trump stated that during the summit the President of the Russian Federation expressed his support for the 2020 elections (which the tycoon lost) by claiming that the election “had been rigged because you have mail-in voting.” The US president said that Putin told him that mail-in voting doesn't exist anywhere else and that that's why Trump lost.
