Trump sees 25% chance of failure at Putin summit

President Donald Trump believes there is a one in four chance of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin failing to result in an agreement.

“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 told Fox News. “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? But there will be a give and take as to boundaries, lands..."

“But there is a 25 percent chance this meeting will not be a successful meeting,” he added.

Notably, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has refused to concede any Ukrainian territory and the Russians have repeatedly stated that the areas they have annexed are enshrined as part of their constitution.

Russia annexed the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, and Donetsk provinces in 2022, after previously annexing Crimea in 2014. Russia does not fully control any of the four new territories, but does possess the clear majority of their lands.

What Trump and Putin plan to discuss remains unclear as Trump has already told European leaders he would not negotiate territorial issues during his summit with the Russian leader.

At present, however, the battlefield momentum is decisively in Russia's favor, with Moscow's forces breaking through Ukrainian lines and managing to almost fully encircle the front-line city of Pokrovsk.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.