Trump falls back on favourite unit of time as hopes of Putin-Zelenskyy talks in focus | World News

US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would give Russian President Vladimir Putin “a couple of weeks,” once again extending his deadline for possible consequences against Moscow while pressing the Russian leader to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart to try to end the war.Asked CNN, if he might take no action should Putin refuse to meet, Trump replied: “We’ll see. I’ll see whose fault it is.”
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“If there are reasons why, I will understand that; I know exactly what I’m doing. We’re going to see whether or not they have a meeting, that will be interesting to see, and if they don’t, why didn’t they have a meeting? Because I told them to have a meeting,” Trump said.

“But I’ll know in two weeks what I’m going to do,” he added, repeating a timeline he has invoked several times as a fixture in his speeches and policy-making, particularly to gauge Putin’s willingness to pursue peace in Ukraine.

His remarks come as the progress regarding the peace talks appears stalled, with no indication that the White House’s proposed bilateral meeting is moving forward. Russian Foreign Miner Sergey Lavrov said earlier Friday that no agenda for the meeting between the two leaders was planned.

Trump, who met Putin in Alaska last week and later hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in Washington, had previously suggested a bilateral session that could be followed a trilateral meeting with his participation.

“You understand that I wanted to have a meeting with those two. I could have been at the meeting, but a lot of people think that nothing’s going to come out of that meeting. ‘You have to be there.’ Maybe that’s true. Maybe it’s not, but we’re going to see in the meantime, people continue to die,” Trump said.

Again stressing his deadline, he added: “We’ll see what happens. I think in two weeks, we’ll know which way I’m going, because I’m going to go one way or the other, and they’ll learn which way.”

As per a report CNN, at one point, Trump pulled from the Resolute Desk a photograph of him with Putin in Anchorage that he said the Russian leader had sent him.

“I was just sent a picture from someone who wants to be there very badly,” Trump said, referencing the World Cup, before announcing that the tournament’s draw would take place at the Kennedy Center in December.

“He’s been very respectful of me and of our country, but not so respectful of others,” Trump said, adding that he intended to sign the photo for Putin, who he suggested might visit the US for the World Cup.

“He may be coming and he may not, depending on what happens. We have a lot of things happening over the next couple of weeks,” Trump said.

Putin, for his part, described his meeting with Trump as “very good” and said Russia wanted to see the fighting in Ukraine end. However, he made no mention of whether he planned to meet Zelensky. He added that Russian and US agencies were still in contact and voiced hope for a “full-scale restoration” of relations.