President Trump assured Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on a Wednesday call that his main goal for Friday’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is to push for a cease-fire — but he is “not very optimistic” the dictator will budge, a US source familiar with the discussion told The Post.
“If Putin does not agree to [a] cease-fire, then Trump [is] likely to hit them [Russia] with sanctions,” the source said.
Hours earlier, Zelensky told reporters in Berlin that he, Trump and other European leaders “demonstrated one voice, one desire, and one principle” ahead of the US-Russia summit in Anchorage, Alaska.
“There should be a cease-fire, there should be security guarantees. President Trump said he supports this and spoke about America’s readiness to take part,” the 47-year-old said in laying out his position.
An American source told The Post that the conversation had gone “mostly well,” while Trump himself gave the call a perfect score.
“We had a very good call,” the president told reporters at the Kennedy Center. “I would rate it a 10.”
Notably, the American president promised the European leaders that he would not discuss the status of Ukrainian territory with Putin, with a source confirming it was ultimately “up to Ukraine to decide if and what territorial concessions to make.”
Before any negotiations on a final deal take place, the Western leaders agreed, a cease-fire must be observed — and Ukraine must be included once peace talks begin.
Trump, 79, also said a second meeting with Putin would take place with Zelensky present — but only if Friday’s sitdown aimed at “setting the table” for a future meeting went well.
“If the first one goes OK, we’ll have a quick second one,” Trump told reporters. “I would like to do it almost immediately, and we’ll have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelensky and myself, if they’d like to have me there.”
If Trump’s skepticism about Putin’s willlingness to play ball is proven true, he and the European leaders agreed that they would “hit Russia with more pressure and sanctions,” the source said.
Ukraine has repeatedly pushed for security guarantees — such as NATO membership or nuclear weapons — but both current and former US administrations have reacted cooly to those ambitions.
However, the source familiar with the Wednesday call said all parties had agreed that whatever the West promises Ukraine will not be subject to Moscow’s veto.
Zelensky also said Trump pledged to call his Ukrainian counterpart immediately after the discussion with Putin.
Kyiv’s constitution — which, like America’s, doesn’t allow for ceding territory without popular consent — was also discussed on the call after Trump said earlier this week he was “bothered” by Zelensky’s vow to put any land deal to a referendum.
US law also prohibits Washington from acknowledging any Ukrainian land as Russian without international recognition.
Sources familiar with the discussions said that the Europeans tried to better explain to Trump why a Putin-pushed idea of recognizing the eastern Ukraine territories of Donetsk and Luhansk as Russian before any peace deal is finalized would be impossible.
Zelensky additionally urged the US and Europe to hit Russia with additional punishment, while insisting that Putin “for sure doesn’t want peace. He wants to occupy our territories.”
The White House has described Friday’s summit — the first face-to-face between Putin and any US president since 2021 — as a “listening exercise” to further understand the goals of Moscow’s 41-month-old invasion. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Trump needs to assess “with his own eyes” whether Putin is serious about ending his conflict.
Trump has insisted in the past that Zelensky needs to meet with Putin to bring an end to Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.
Zelensky was not invited to Friday’s meeting because it was proposed by Putin himself, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Tuesday.
US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff had originally proposed a trilateral meeting — with Trump, Putin and Zelensky — at the president’s request before Putin countered with the one-on-one idea, according to White House sources.
Putin, 72, has long refused to meet with Zelensky, but has long desired to talk directly to Trump.
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