US President Donald Trump on Monday said he would know “within minutes” if a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine is possible when he meets Russian President Vladimir Putin later this week.“We’re going to have a meeting with Vladimir Putin and … probably in the first two minutes, I’ll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.When reporter asked, “how will you know that?” The US President responded saying, “Because that’s what I do — I make deals.”Trump said this shortly after taking control of the Washington, DC, police department and deploying the National Guard.Trump further said he aimed to have “constructive conversations” with the Russian leader and wanted to see “a ceasefire very, very quickly.”“I’m going to speak to Vladimir Putin and I’m going to be telling him, you’ve got to end this war. And he wasn’t going to mess with me. But I thought it was very respectful that the president of Russia is coming to our country as opposed to us going to his country or even a third-party place, but I think we’ll have constructive conversations,” Trump said.He also revealed plans to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders immediately after the talks.“The next meeting will be with Zelenskyy and Putin, or Zelenskyy, Putin and me,” Trump said, further adding that, “I’ll be there if they need me, but I want to have a meeting set up between the two leaders.”When asked if he could envision a time when the US and Russia might resume normal trade, Trump replied, “I do. Russia has a very valuable piece of land.”He went on to say that if Putin shifted focus “toward business instead of toward war,” relations could improve, adding, “It’s a warring nation.”“That’s what they do. They fight a lot of wars. A friend of mine said Russia is tough because they just keep on fighting. They beat Hitler. So did we…”At one point, Trump mistakenly said he was “going to Russia on Friday.”The meeting is actually set for Friday, August 15, in Alaska, a state that has not been part of Russia since its sale to the US in 1867. The far northern state was chosen for its symbolic location across the Bering Strait from Russia’s easternmost point.It will be Putin’s first visit to the United States in a decade; his last trip was to New York in 2015 for the UN General AssemblyAnnouncing the meeting last week on Truth Social, Trump called it “the highly anticipated meeting” between the President of the United States of America, and President of Russia which “will take place next Friday, August 15, 2025, in the Great State of Alaska.”
