By Nandita Bose and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump said on Thursday he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a deal about his war on Ukraine, and that the threat of sanctions against Russia likely played a role in Moscow's decision to seek a meeting.
Trump is scheduled to meet with Putin in Alaska on Friday. The U.S. president said he is unsure whether an immediate ceasefire can be achieved, but expressed interest in brokering a peace agreement.
"I believe now,
he's convinced that he's going to make a deal. He's going to make a deal. I think he's going to, and we're going to find out," Trump said in an interview on Fox News Radio's "The Brian Kilmeade Show."
Earlier in the day, Putin said the United States was making "sincere efforts" to end the war in Ukraine and suggested Moscow and Washington could agree on a nuclear arms deal as part of a broader push to strengthen peace.
Trump also mentioned during the Fox interview that he has three locations in mind for a follow-up meeting with Putin and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, though he noted that a second meeting is not guaranteed.
He said staying in Alaska for a three-way summit would be the easiest scenario.
"Depending on what happens with my meeting, I'm going to be calling up President Zelenskiy, and let's get him over to wherever we're going to meet," Trump said.
He said a second meeting, featuring Trump, Putin, and Zelenskiy, would likely dig deeper into boundary issues. Zelenskiy has been adamant about not ceding territory that Russian forces occupy.
"The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that's going to be a meeting where they make a deal. And I don't want to use the word 'divvy things up,' but you know, to a certain extent, it's not a bad term, OK?" he said.
"But there will be a give and take as to boundaries, lands, etc, etc. The second meeting is going to be very, very very important. This meeting sets up like a chess game. This (first) meeting sets up a second meeting, but there is a 25% chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting," he said.
He said it would be up to Putin and Zelenskiy to strike an agreement.
"I'm not going to negotiate their deal. I'm going to let them negotiate their deal," he said.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Steve Holland in Washington; Editing by Alexandra Hudson, Chizu Nomiyama, Rod Nickel)
