President Donald Trump appeared to say that he would push for an unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine when he meets Friday with President Vladimir Putin, according to two European diplomats familiar with a call Trump had with European leaders.
Here’s what officials are saying about the call:
Ceasefire: While Trump did not use the term unconditional he said that he believed that a ceasefire would be a show of goodwill from Russia, and he also said that the Ukrainian territory is not for him to negotiate — which left the impression that he would not entertain any Russian proposal that they would get control of Ukrainian territory in exchange for a ceasefire, the sources said.
This came as a main message from the Europeans was that Ukraine must be included in negotiations about its territory, one of them said.
However, expectations for that meeting are not high, this official said.
Security guarantees for Ukraine: Trump also expressed support for security guarantees for Ukraine that would include US role, which was viewed as a particularly positive development, one of the diplomats said.
But one former Trump official warned against reading too much into the Europeans’ readout, explaining that the president often likes to keep allies on-side, but that anything could happen when he goes into the meeting.
Threats of secondary sanctions: The idea of putting new Russian sanctions into effect — particularly secondary sanctions on China for important Russian oil — if the meeting does not go well was discussed, sources said. Trump said he was thinking about it but made no commitments, one source explained.
Still, there was the sense that Trump could impose the new US sanctions very soon if things go poorly in the meeting, the third European official said.
