Trump defends Zelenskyy against Russian official: 'It's all bulls**t'



President Donald Trump dismissed the claim of a Russian official as the commander in chief continues to negotiate peace talks with Ukraine.

Sergey Lavrov, Russia's minister of foreign affairs, recently said that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not sign a peace deal with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy because he is viewed as an "illegitimate" leader. Trump shot down Lavrov's comments during Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, saying, "Everybody is posturing."

'The issue of who is going to sign the deal on Ukrainian side is a very serious issue.'

"It doesn't matter what they say," Trump told reporters. "Everybody is posturing. It's all bullsh**t."

Trump also offered United States Special Envoy Steve Witkoff the opportunity to chime in, to which he simply said, "I agree with you, sir." The room filled with reporters and government officials promptly erupted with laughter.

Notably, Zelenskyy's five-year presidential term was set to end in May 2024, but no elections have been called due to the ongoing conflict with Russia.

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Reporter: "This weekend Sergey Lavrov was saying Putin will not sign a peace deal with Zelenskyy because Russia views him as illegitimate..."

President Trump: "It doesn't matter what they say. Everybody is posturing. It's all bullshit." pic.twitter.com/8H8AeKNqAC
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) August 26, 2025

Although the Trump administration has held separate summits with both Zelenskyy and Putin in recent weeks, Lavrov said there is "no planned meeting" between the two leaders.

In addition to challenging Zelenskyy's leadership, Lavrov reiterated the slew of preconditions Russia is demanding from Ukraine. Some of these preconditions include Ukraine agreeing not to join NATO, "the discussion of territorial issues," and for Zelenskyy to cancel any legislation "prohibiting the Russian language."

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Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

"Irrespective of when this meeting might take place, and that must be very well prepared, the issue of who is going to sign the deal on Ukrainian side is a very serious issue," Lavrov said over the weekend.

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White Stripes singer writes unhinged essay about Trump being a 'fascist' who faked getting shot



Singer Jack White from the White Stripes is not short on ideas when it comes to the White House or the Trump administration.

Last week, White posted a picture of President Donald Trump's meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and labeled the White House decor as "vulgar, gold leafed, and gaudy."

The scathing review of the president's interior design skills were coupled with typical commentary about Trump possessing the nuclear codes and being an "embarrassment to American history."

But White did have something good to say before he was finished.

'A washed up, has-been loser posting drivel on social media.'

The 50-year-old praised Zelenskyy in that same post, calling him "a REAL leader of a nation in a black suit."

Following White's remarks, White House communications director Steven Cheung insulted the musician. He called White "a washed up, has-been loser posting drivel on social media because he clearly has ample time on his hands due to his stalled career."

Cheung defended the White House decor in his comments to the Daily Beast, adding that White "fails to appreciate" the magnificence of the Oval Office.

White did not take the insults lightly and offloaded what seemed to be a decade's worth of gripes with President Trump that ranged from claims about January 6, 2021, to Trump's assassination attempt in 2024.

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Jack White at Bernie Sanders campaign rally at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Michigan, on October 27, 2019. Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images

While White claimed he was shocked at the White House's response — despite him calling Trump an embarrassment and a "con-man" — he listed an array of claims in an Instagram post about the president, comparing him to the Nazis several times.

White said Trump has manipulated the government like a "fascist," that ICE uses "gestapo" tactics, and that the president has made racist remarks about Latinos, Native Americans, and even has made "attacks on the disabled."

More comments about "nazi like rallies" were coupled with the claim that Trump had faked getting shot in the ear, which White said was evidenced by the president not showing "medical records or photographs" of the shooting.

White also accused Cheung and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt of "covering up" fascism as patriotism.

The singer seemingly has an issue with everything the president does, claiming Trump has not improved America at all and that any changes Trump has made are only "smoke and mirrors" to benefit the "ultra wealthy."

Still, White defended himself in the post as "not a Democrat" and labeled Trump voters as victims "of the 2 party system."

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Perhaps White was a victim of the same system when he performed at a Bernie Sanders rally when the senator ran for president as a Democrat in 2020, the second time he had done so.

White's post touched on every possible angle of Trump criticism, leaving no space for grace for the twice-elected president. The musician's Trump-related insults run the gamut, with White even calling Trump's agenda "white supremacist."

Also, like many anti-Trump activists, White even decided he was the arbiter of Christianity when he said Trump has been "masquerading as a Christian," claiming Trump's voters support him because "he hates who [they] hate."

"How christian of you all," White concluded.

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Trump tells Mark Levin what guides him in peace talks, emphasizes need to stop the Russia-Ukraine massacre



President Donald Trump revealed in a Tuesday interview with Blaze Media co-founder Mark Levin what guides him through his diplomatic endeavors as well as what's next for Ukraine, Russia, and America where brokering a lasting peace is concerned.

"You've got a lot of balls in the air with this," said Levin.

"You've got NATO. You got these NATO countries. You've got our national security interests. You've got Russia and Ukraine, their interests, and so forth and so on."

Levin asked, "Is there process here, or do you just kind of go with the flow?"

'Don't forget: That's not easy to overcome when he sees these wack jobs.'

Trump — who alluded in the interview to the conflicts he recently resolved between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cambodia and Thailand, and India and Pakistan, as well as his decisive strikes on Iran and the progress made already regarding the war in Ukraine — indicated that "it's probably instinct more than process."

"I have instincts, and I've lived with my instinct about things. Even running for president, I had an instinct I'd win the first time, and I did even better the second time — as you know, I did much better ... but bad things happened," said Trump.

The president suggested that now his second term "is far more powerful."

RELATED: Peter Doocy confronts Zelenskyy with question central to peace talks — and the response speaks volumes

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

While his instinct has helped bring relative peace to numerous nations around the world, Trump admitted to Levin that based on his previous relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he initially expected that things would have gone more smoothly with the Ukraine peace talks.

"I actually had a good relationship with President Putin [in] the first term despite the fact that we had 'Russia, Russia, Russia,'" said Trump. "Don't forget: That's not easy to overcome when he sees these wack jobs — and he knew it was false because he wasn't involved. Not to say he's an angel, by the way, but he knew it was all a made-up thing, and, you know, he probably thought we were totally crazy, this country."

Trump indicated that while the Russia-Ukraine war has proven more difficult to resolve than other conflicts — certainly more difficult that he first imagined — he had "very successful" meetings with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, "and now we'll see how they do."

In the event that Putin and Zelenskyy can't seal the deal, Trump indicated, "I'll probably be able to get it closed. I just want to see what happens at the meeting."

'You're not going to have to worry about that.'

Regardless of the outcome, Trump made clear that the American taxpayer will no longer be on the hook for prolonging the Slavic bloodshed.

Trump bemoaned the hundreds of billions in taxpayer dollars that have been spent on the war, stressing, "We're not going to do that."

Between the rare-earth deal he brokered with Ukraine and his deal with NATO for the military alliance to buy American missiles and weapons, Trump indicated that "we're not spending any money" despite pressure from Zelenskyy, whom he likened to P.T. Barnum, the hoax-pushing showman who co-founded the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

"The whole thing is ridiculous," said Trump. "But more importantly, the death being caused over there is incredible. So we're going to try and stop it, and I think we have a good shot."

At the very least, Trump reassured Levin that whereas the conflict in Ukraine was dragging the world toward nuclear war when former President Joe Biden was in office, "you're not going to have that any more. That's the nice part. You're not going to have to worry about that."

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Glenn Beck unpacks 3 HUGE wins from Trump’s Zelenskyy meeting



On August 18, just three days after his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, President Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House to continue the discussion of ending the Russia-Ukraine war, which has been raging for nearly three and a half years now.

Though no agreements are finalized, the world holds greater hope than ever before that the brutal Russia-Ukraine war, with its toll of hundreds of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions in costs, is nearing its end, guided by the brilliant conductor of these intricate negotiations: President Donald Trump.

On a recent episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn unpacked the meeting and identified the three biggest Trump wins.

1. Re-establishing America as the global leader

Glenn continues to be amazed by Trump’s unique ability to project American power without relying on military force or being a mere participant in a global coalition. Instead, he is leading the coalition, setting the agenda, and compelling world leaders to follow his direction.

“When [Trump] won the second term, he made it very clear he was going to send a message to the world that he's changing things. … He is doing that while we have had every other president since maybe Reagan start bowing a knee to the global world order,” says Glenn.

“The world has been marching to that drum that America’s time has passed. We're not in the driver's seat any more. We need to have deference to everybody else [and] stop leading the world.”

Trump, he explains, has simultaneously reclaimed the driver’s seat, re-establishing America as “the leader of the world,” and yet managed to avoid “being the policemen of the world” — something Americans “have always wanted.”

This new new world order, with America back at the helm, was evident in Monday’s meeting, Glenn says, comparing the event to a school staff meeting where Trump is the principal and the world leaders are his students.

“He is calling all of the kids in or the teachers in because it's time we have a little conference here, and I need to tell you what's going on in your own classrooms. That's what it felt like yesterday. That is the projection of global leadership,” Glenn says.

2. Breaking the stalemate in Ukraine-Russia negotiations

In a matter of just days, President Trump has succeeded in reigniting dialogue and making headway where there’s been virtually none in over three years.

Even the biggest world leaders have acknowledged this — Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron, and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer have all condoned President Trump’s role in advancing diplomacy.

It’s clear that he’s mastered “the art of the deal,” says Glenn, adding that his genius lies in his ability to make others — even Putin — “want to be in his circle.”

He sees Trump’s direct engagement with Putin, including the mid-meeting phone call to update him, as a pivotal move that pressured him to take negotiations seriously. This diplomatic breakthrough, including discussions of an Article 5-like security agreement, is a significant win, even if the final outcome remains uncertain.

3. Leading without bureaucratic constraints

Another major win from the meeting, says Glenn, is that it revealed that Trump relies on his own judgment, sidestepping State Department advisers who have pushed ineffective policies for decades.

He contrasts Trump’s approach with previous presidents — especially post-Reagan ones — who were overly influenced by entrenched advisers.

“He's leading the State Department. He's leading the world. He's keeping his own counsel. That hasn't been done by a president in I don't know how long,” Glenn says, “and it's why we're once again the leaders of the world because these these advisers — all of these doctors and professors and people who have been in the State Department their whole life and know better than everybody — Donald Trump has said to them, ‘Shut up. I've seen your record. It doesn't work.”’

For the first time in decades, “the president of the United States is in charge of his administration.”

To hear more of Glenn’s commentary and analysis, watch the episode above.

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Karoline Leavitt brutally torches New York Times reporter: 'With all due respect'



White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has once again stopped the fake news media in their tracks.

During Tuesday's press briefing, Leavitt defended President Donald Trump's ongoing peace talks to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict after a New York Times reporter pressed her on the issue. A reporter named Shawn McCreesh asked Leavitt about a comment Trump made during Monday's monumental summit, when he decided to take Russian President Vladimir Putin's call privately out of respect.

'The left-wing media has been actively rooting against the president.'

"If the point is to get everybody on the same page, why wouldn't Trump just take the call from Putin while the other leaders were in the room?" McCreesh asked Leavitt. "You said it would be disrespectful to do that, but why is it disrespectful?"

"With all due respect, only a reporter from the New York Times would ask a question like that," Leavitt replied.

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"The president met with all of these European leaders at the White House 48 hours after sitting down with President Putin on American soil," Leavitt said.

"In fact, there was so much progress, and the readout that was given to these European leaders immediately following his meeting with President Putin, that every single one of them got on a plane 48 hours later and flew to the United States of America," Leavitt added.

Leavitt also set her sights on the "left-wing" media more broadly, accusing various outlets of "actively rooting against" Trump's ongoing attempts to broker peace in the region.

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Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

"One thing that has absolutely not changed is the media's negative and downright false coverage of President Trump and his foreign policy accomplishments," Leavitt said.

"From the beginning of this entire process, much of the left-wing media has been actively rooting against the president of the United States in the pursuit of peace."

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Peter Doocy confronts Zelenskyy with question central to peace talks — and the response speaks volumes



President Donald Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a handful of European leaders at the White House on Monday to discuss bringing an end to the war in Ukraine.

Ahead of involving NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and his other guests, Trump first sat down with Zelenskyy for a meeting that went far more smoothly than the Ukrainian president's February Oval Office appearance.

'Are you prepared to keep sending Ukrainian troops to their deaths for another couple years, or are you going to agree to redraw the maps?'

It certainly did not hurt that Zelenskyy wore a suit this time around and expressed a great deal of gratitude to Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and the U.S. at the outset of the meeting.

While the meeting was largely positive, the Ukrainian president appeared keen to dodge the question of whether he would accept a redrawing of the map in order to bring the conflict to a close.

Trump noted in the meeting on Monday that since retaking office, he has resolved multiple conflicts — between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cambodia and Thailand, and India and Pakistan — and "thought this maybe would be the easiest one" but discovered "it's a tough one."

The war in Ukraine is now nearly halfway through its third year, with an estimated 400,000 Ukrainian casualties, 950,000 Russian casualties, and over 3.7 million people displaced.

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Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Trump, who had an "extremely productive" meeting on Friday with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, stressed, however, that there is now a "good chance" of ending the war through these meetings.

The president told reporters, "The war is going to end, and [Zelenskyy] wants it to end, and Vladimir Putin wants it to end. I think the whole world is tired of it, and we're going to get it ended."

— (@)

"We're going to make sure that if there's peace, the peace is going to stay long-term," Trump said. "We're not talking about a two-year peace, and then we end up in this mess again. We're going to make sure that everything's good."

Trump indicated that to this end, the U.S. will give Ukraine "very good protection, very good security."

While Trump reportedly got Putin to agree to non-NATO security guarantees for Ukraine as well as to "land swaps," the Russian president conditioned peace on Kyiv abandoning the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east of the country.

Zelenskyy has softened his stance about giving up conquered lands as part of a potential settlement. Whereas earlier this month, Zelenskyy indicated that "Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier," he is apparently now amenable to some exchanges of territory; however, the Ukrainian president told reporters over the weekend that he would not give up Donetsk.

Russia occupies around 20% of the entire country and most of the Donbas — including all of the Luhansk region, most of the Donetsk region, much of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, and parts of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.

Fox News' Peter Doocy asked Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, "Are you prepared to keep sending Ukrainian troops to their deaths for another couple years, or are you going to agree to redraw the maps?"

— (@)

Zelenskyy did not directly answer the question but instead noted that Ukrainians live under constant attack and alluded to the drone strike that took place overnight and reportedly claimed the lives of seven people, including a toddler, in the northeastern city of Kharkiv.

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Photo by Antonio Masiello/Getty Images

"We need to stop this war, to stop Russia, and we need support from American and European partners, and we will do our best for this," Zelenskyy said.

'So you're saying during the war you can't have elections?'

While the Ukrainian president avoided answering the question of whether he would agree to redrawing the maps, he did underscore his support for Trump's "diplomatic way of finishing this war" and expressed a readiness for trilateral talks.

Trump once again made clear that he wants the killing to stop.

"I love the Ukrainian people, but I love all people. I love the Russian people. I love them all. I want to get the war stopped," Trump said.

Trump also quipped that he was a fan of Ukraine's rule where elections are suspended indefinitely during wartime — the rule that has kept Zelenskyy in power well past the end of his presidential term.

"So you're saying during the war you can't have elections? So let me just see. Three and a half years from now, so you mean if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections?" Trump said. "I wonder what the fake news would say."

— (@)

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Zelenskyy inches closer to deal ahead of Trump-Russia-Ukraine summit



Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters that he is open to certain concessions in order to achieve peace with Russia, despite rejecting the ideas in the past.

Zelenskyy spoke to reporters in Brussels over the weekend, not long after President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Alaska for a historic summit.

During the meeting, Putin said that Ukraine would need to abandon its Donetsk and Luhansk regions on the eastern border as a condition for peace. Zelenskyy responded to the demands, and announced what he is considering an arrangement

'Putin has been unable to take it for 12 years.'

Although he is set to meet with Trump Monday, the Ukrainian leader said that he would be open to "land swaps" in order to reach a peace deal with Russia, but rejected the idea that he should give up Donetsk.

A map of the region showing current battle lines (Aug. 14, per BBC), shows that while Luhansk is completely enveloped by Russian forces, about a third of Donetsk is still under Ukrainian control, as is a fair chunk of the Zaporizhzhia territory. Those front lines are where the negotiations should start from, Zelenskyy said.

"We need real negotiations, which means they can start where the front line is now," Zelenskyy explained, according to the New York Post. "The contact line is the best line for talking."

Ukraine's strong defense of Donetsk was Zelenskyy's proud talking point on the issue, noting, "Putin has been unable to take it for 12 years, and the Constitution of Ukraine makes it impossible to give up territory or trade land."

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President Donald Trump greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on February 28, 2025. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

As peace gets closer, President Zelenskyy is seemingly changing his tune when compared to remarks he has made throughout the war.

In April 2022, he said "we cannot give up our territory," in regards to ceding land in exchange for peace.

In a July 2022 interview with CNN, Zelensky also firmly rejected the idea of giving up territory.

The Ukrainian president also called it "insane" to consider giving territories to Russia in December 2023, referring to Russian troops as "terrorists" at the time.

Zelensky now says, "Since the territorial issue is so important, it should be discussed only by the leaders of Ukraine and Russia at the trilateral Ukraine-United States-Russia,” referring to a meeting between himself, Trump, and Putin.

RELATED: 'There's no deal until there's a deal': Trump says Alaska meeting with Putin was 'extremely productive'

After Friday's U.S.-Russia meeting, Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity that "security measures" for Ukraine were "largely" agreed upon between himself and Putin, meaning Ukraine would get certain guarantees without being admitted into NATO.

Trump then said the peace deal is now "really up to President Zelenskyy to get it done."

In response, Zelenskyy told reporters, "We really want to get an answer to these questions in order to understand what 'security guarantees' are."

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Trump says he knows exactly why Putin wouldn't have invaded Ukraine if he was president



President Donald Trump said the reason Russia invaded Ukraine under President Biden instead of himself is obvious.

Trump had a historic meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to discuss the possibility of peace with Ukraine. In a press conference after their discussion, Putin confirmed Trump's long-held claim that he would not have started a war with the Ukraine if Trump was in the Oval Office at the time, in early 2022.

Speaking with Fox News' Sean Hannity soon after, Trump said he knew exactly why that invasion happened under President Biden, and not under his watch.

'He said your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting.'

Hannity brought up Putin's statement, and asked if the Russian leader gave specific reasons as to why he made the remark.

"He did," Trump began. "I know the reason, it's gross incompetence. We have a border that is totally close now and people come in, but they come in legally."

Trump revealed that not only did Putin say that if he had won the 2020 presidential election "we wouldn't have had a war," but also that Trump was cheated out of an election victory, as well.

RELATED: 'There's no deal until there's a deal': Trump says Alaska meeting with Putin was 'extremely productive'

The POTUS said that Putin pinpointed mail-in voting as the apparatus Democrats used to rig the election.

"He said your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting. He said mail-in voting, every election, he said no country has mail-in voting. It is impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections," Trump recalled, claiming that Putin said he won the presidency "by so much."

The 47th president explained that Putin also complimented the quick turnaround the United States has had since Biden left office, and that the U.S. is "hot as a pistol."

"A year ago he thought [the country] was dead," Trump relayed.

Trump also referred to the 2020 election as a "tragedy" because Biden taking office actually produced "something that was unthinkable."

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Photo by Contributor/Getty Images

"He drove China and Russia together. That's not good," Trump continued. To counter this, the president said he wants to make sure America and Russia can work together.

Fox News White House correspondent Edward Lawrence reported that a significant chunk of the meeting was actually based on making business deals between Russia and the United States. This included talks about rare-Earth minerals that are in contested locations, and therefore could end up being shared by Russia and the U.S. in a future trade deal.

After rating the meeting with Putin a "10 out of 10," Trump said there were two "pretty significant items" that could be reached between the Russians and Ukrainians.

Hannity presented possible concessions that he felt Ukraine likely needed to make in order for Russia to accept peace, which included "land swaps," meaning "there will be more Russian territory than there had been," as well as "security measures" for Ukraine that will not rely on NATO.

Trump replied that those points were in fact negotiated, and were also "largely" agreed upon.

"Now it is really up to President Zelenskyy to get it done," Trump added, saying that he wanted to attend a meeting between the two foreign leaders out of necessity, not desire.

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Trump is optimistic ahead of Putin meeting — predicts 25% chance of failure



U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are slated to meet Friday in Alaska. Trump has referred to the upcoming summit as a "feel-out meeting" to determine the likelihood of reaching a ceasefire agreement and ultimately an end to the conflict with Ukraine.

Trump stated in the days leading up to the summit that if the talks are successful, there is a chance they will remain in Alaska longer than initially planned to host a second meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

'Trump is not likely to suffer another Putin ploy to string him along, making this meeting more consequential and high-risk for Moscow, with secondary sanctions and tariffs already placing a cost on those still supporting or doing business with Russia.'

Trump is optimistic that Putin "wants to get it done," though he noted that there is a 25% chance the meeting will be a failure.

"I believe now he's convinced that he's going to make a deal," Trump said. "I'm going to know very quickly."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio made similar remarks ahead of Friday's summit, stating that the administration will know "very early" in the meeting "whether something is possible or not."

Trump has vowed to implement "very severe consequences," including sanctions, if Putin refuses to advance peace talks.

RELATED: Trump 'bothered' after Zelenskyy shoots down compromises ahead of peace summit

Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

He indicated that negotiations between Putin and Zelenskyy would likely require some "land swapping" that would be "good" and "bad" for both countries.

"Russia has occupied a big portion of Ukraine," Trump stated. "They've occupied some very prime territory. We're going to try and get some of that territory back for Ukraine."

Zelenskyy rejected Trump's land swapping idea, stating that Ukraine "will not give land to the occupier."

On Thursday, Putin said that the Trump administration was "making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict."

Zelenskyy is less optimistic about the upcoming meeting, claiming that Russia has shown "no sign" that it is preparing to end the war.

"Our coordinated efforts and joint actions — of Ukraine, the United States, Europe, and all countries that seek peace — can definitely compel Russia to make peace," Zelenskyy said.

He has accused Russia of “dragging out the war,” insisting that “it deserves stronger global pressure.”

“Russia refuses to stop the killings, and therefore must not receive any rewards or benefits. And this is not just a moral position — it is a rational one. Concessions do not persuade a killer. But truly strong protection of life stops the killers,” he wrote in a post on social media.

RELATED: Vance makes one thing abundantly clear ahead of Trump's big ceasefire meeting with Putin

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Regardless of the outcome of Friday's meeting with Putin, Trump intends to speak with the press afterward. However, it remains undecided whether the press conference will be addressed jointly.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously indicated that Trump and Putin would hold a press conference together, but Trump later appeared to walk back those plans.

"If it's negative, I'll have a press conference to say that the war is going to go on and these people are horribly going to continue to shoot each other and kill each other, and I think it's a disgrace, and I'll head back to Washington," Trump said. "Or I'll have a press conference that's positive."

Trump plans to call European leaders and Zelenskyy after his meeting with Putin to discuss next steps. He promised that the next meeting would involve both Putin and Zelenskyy.

"I will put the two of them in a room," he said. "I think it will get solved."

Trump is scheduled to meet with Putin at Alaska’s Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson around 3:00 p.m. Eastern.

Brent Sadler, a national security senior research fellow with the Heritage Foundation, told Blaze News, “The best outcome is Putin beginning to talk and giving up his maximalist approach to negotiations. Trump is not likely to suffer another Putin ploy to string him along, making this meeting more consequential and high-risk for Moscow, with secondary sanctions and tariffs already placing a cost on those still supporting or doing business with Russia.”

When contacted for a comment, the White House directed Blaze News to the statements made by Trump and Leavitt ahead of the summit.

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Trump 'bothered' after Zelenskyy shoots down compromises ahead of peace summit



Within hours of brokering a historic peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15 to discuss similarly resolving the war in Ukraine, which is now five months into its third year.

Trump's plan is to join Putin for a "feel-out meeting," confer afterward with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, and then at a later date, meet with both Putin and Zelenskyy in hopes of ironing out the details and ultimately sealing the deal.

'He's got approval to go to war and kill everybody, but he needs approval to do a land swap.'

Zelenskyy was evidently peeved that the initial summit would take place without him as well as by Trump's suggestion to reporters that the peace deal would likely involve "some swapping of territories to the betterment of both."

Following Trump's announcement, Zelenskyy said in a video statement that "Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier" and that "any decisions that are against us, any decisions that are made without Ukraine, are at the same time decisions against peace. They will not achieve anything. These are unworkable decisions."

Trump, who has made no secret of his frustration with Zelenskyy and who in February accused the foreign leader of "gambling with the lives of millions of people," did not respond well to this apparent effort to sabotage the upcoming summit.

"I get along with Zelenskyy, but, you know, I disagree with what he's done — very, very severely disagree," Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.

RELATED: Vance makes one thing abundantly clear ahead of Trump's big ceasefire meeting with Putin

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"I was a little bothered by the fact that Zelenskyy was saying that 'well, I have to get constitutional approval.' I mean, he's got approval to go to war and kill everybody, but he needs approval to do a land swap," said Trump. "There will be some land swapping going on. I know that through Russia and through conversations with everybody."

European officials who have spoken to U.S. officials about their talks with Putin claim that Moscow wants Ukraine to cede the eastern portion of the country known as the Donbas, reported the New York Times.

'The money that's been spent and the death is incredible.'

Russia occupies around 20% of the entire country and most of the Donbas — including all of the Luhansk region, most of the Donetsk region, much of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, and parts of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.

Trump noted that "Russia's occupied a big portion of Ukraine. They've occupied some very prime territory. We're going to try to get some of that territory back for Ukraine."

According to the Institute for the Study of War's latest assessment of the Russian offensive campaign, the "prime territory" that Trump was referencing was likely the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

"The money that's been spent and the death is incredible. It's the worst thing that's happened — by far the worst that's happened — since World War II. So I'm going in to speak to Vladimir Putin, and I'm going to be telling him, 'You gotta end this war.'"

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The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated in June that upwards of 250,000 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine and hundreds of thousands more have been wounded — leaving Moscow with a potential fatality rate five times the number of all Russian and Soviet wars combined since World War II. Ukraine has seen upwards of 100,000 soldiers killed with a total of 400,000 casualties.

The war, which the U.S. has sunk hundreds of billions of dollars into, has also resulted in the displacement of over 3.7 million people and an exodus of around seven million Ukrainians.

"I'd like to see a ceasefire. I'd like to see the best deal that could be made for both parties," continued Trump. "It takes two to tango, all right."

When asked whether Zelenskyy is expected to soften his position on this matter, the State Department referred Blaze News to the White House for comment. Blaze News has reached out to the White House.

Zelenskyy may not presently want to make any concessions, but recent polling suggests Ukrainians are growing increasingly desperate to negotiate an end to the conflict.

According to a Gallup poll conducted last month, 69% of Ukrainians said that they favor a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible. Only 24% said they support continuing to fight until victory.

'I believe he wants to get it over with.'

This is nearly a total reversal of the responses to a 2022 poll, where 73% of Ukrainian respondents said they favored fighting until victory and 22% said they wanted to see a negotiated end as soon as possible — a peace that was spiked during negotiations in Turkey.

Despite the U.S. propping up Kyiv and Trump's efforts to broker a peace, pollsters found that 73% of Ukrainians signaled disapproval of "the job performance of the leadership of the United States." Only 16% of respondents signaled approval, which spiked in 2022 then began to plummet during former President Joe Biden's term.

A trend that might make negotiations simpler is the Ukrainian sense that NATO membership is a bridge too far.

Whereas 64% of respondents said in 2022 that they expected Ukrainian NATO membership within 10 years, that optimism has dissipated such that now only 32% of Ukrainians expect acceptance into the organization, which Moscow has indicated would be intolerable.

Although Trump indicated Putin has disappointed him before, he said that this time around, "I believe he wants to get it over with."

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