How Trump’s Meeting With Putin Pivoted From Ukraine Cease-Fire to Full Peace Deal
President Trump made an abrupt announcement about two hours into his private, roughly three-hour meeting with Vladimir Putin Friday — declaring he wanted a full peace deal in Ukraine rather than a cease-fire, The Post has learned.
Convinced there were relatively few matters left to resolve, and believing a truce would only prolong the war, Trump set aside his publicly stated goal of a temporary halt in fighting.
“Figuratively, the president sort of threw up his hands and said, ‘I’m not interested in a cease-fire anymore,’” a source familiar with the discussion said.
Trump expressed concern that the “focus of the cease-fire” would be on “how long the cease fire will be” and “are they going to rearm?”
The pivot yielded “no pushback from the Russians,” leading Trump to exit Anchorage without a cease-fire in hand. Instead, he dialed up Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders to see if a full peace deal was within reach.
The calls yielded a positive response, the source said, and Trump announced on social media that Zelensky would be at the White House Monday for talks. (Read more from “How Trump’s Meeting With Putin Pivoted From Ukraine Cease-Fire to Full Peace Deal” HERE)
