Speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday, President Trump sounded optimistic about his upcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

Washington

President Trump has voiced optimism that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could reach a peace agreement. Trump is set to meet with Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, expressing faith in the possibility of either a short-term or long-term peace deal, though he acknowledged a significant chance of failure.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has expressed skepticism, suggesting Putin is not genuinely interested in peace. The summit's location is partly due to international restrictions on Putin, who faces an arrest warrant and sanctions. Trump indicated that if talks are productive, a broader summit including Zelenskyy could follow, but he is prepared to proceed alone if necessary.

Trump says he thinks Putin and Zelenskyy will make peace

Welcome back to The Takeout. White House, of course, is preparing for tomorrow's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska. Here's the president in the Oval Office earlier. I think President Putin will make peace. I think President Zelensky will make peace. We'll see if they can get along. And if they can, it'll be great. Nancy Cordes joins me from Anchorage. Well, Nancy, the president said we'll make peace. He didn't say when. That's a big question. When? That's true. But right. Well, President Trump has at least some faith, Major, that he will be able to nudge President Putin into some kind of either short-term or long-term peace agreement. He wouldn't be holding this meeting if he didn't have that faith. But he also admitted today that, in his view, there's a 25 percent chance that these talks tomorrow are a total failure. Now, I would say European leaders would peg the number higher than that. Vladimir Zelensky, the leader of Ukraine, said point-blank yesterday that he thinks that Putin is bluffing, that he doesn't really want peace, that he is simply stringing the U.S. and the world along as he intensifies his attacks on Ukraine. But Trump says he wants to feel out the Russian president, see if he is open to a deal, open to making peace, and that if he deems that that's the case, then he would be eager to hold another summit in short order that involves not just Putin, but Ukraine's president as well. Picking up on that, Nancy, I was fascinated by the president's description of that. It might even be there in Anchorage. Are we talking about a potential summit village in Anchorage that goes on for days? Is there any expectation on the ground there that that could actually come to be? NANCY CORDES, The Washington Post): I mean, that would be efficient, because, after all, President Trump is going to have to fly seven hours or so to get here from Washington, D.C. President Putin has to fly nine hours. And, frankly, there aren't that many other places that Putin can safely go right now that would be hospitable for a summit. He's facing, as you know, an arrest warrant for war crimes from the International Criminal Court that severely limits the countries that he can safely visit without getting arrested. He's also facing major sanctions that require the Treasury Department to issue a special license just for him to land here with his team tomorrow. And so, yes, if things go really well, there is a world in which President Trump calls up Vladimir Zelensky and says, OK, why don't you head here too, and we will all just sit down and talk. But President Trump said there are a few locations where talks like this could play out. And he said, if it doesn't happen immediately, that it should happen over the next week or so. But he also said, Major, that if things don't go well, then he's not doing a joint press conference with Vladimir Putin tomorrow. He will just do a press conference by himself after the meetings and head home and wash his hands of it. And we will be ready for all of that. Nancy Cordes, thank you so very much.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London. This comes one day before U.S. President Donald Trump is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss a possible ceasefire in Ukraine.

London

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Kyiv

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Breakdown