US President Donald Trump predicted that his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin has a 25% chance of failure, previewing the summit as an effort to set the table for a second meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to reach a deal to end the yearslong conflict, CNN reports.
Asked during an interview with Fox Radio’s Brian Kilmeade today whether there was any scenario where the meeting would be viewed as a failure, Trump said, “Yeah, 25%.”
“This meeting sets up the second meeting. The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that’s going to be a meeting where they make a deal,” Trump said.
He suggested there would be “give and take” on boundaries and lands during a second meeting.
Tomorrow’s meeting, he said, is “like a chess game.”
“This meeting sets up the second meeting, but there is a 25% chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting,” he reiterated.
Trump also expressed openness to hitting Russia with additional sanctions if the meeting doesn’t end well.
“I would, yeah. … If it’s not solved,” he said, referring to the war in Ukraine.
