European leaders are likely to impose sanctions against Russia if Kremlin head Vladimir Putin refuses to participate in a trilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump, reports the British The Telegraph, writes UNN.
Details
A senior government source familiar with White House negotiations stated: "If Putin delays, evades, or refuses to talk, it will be another push for sanctions."
Zelenskyy called for sanctions if Putin refused to participate in the summit, at a press conference on Sunday before his visit to Washington.
Addition
This came after Trump stated that the US could offer Ukraine air support in the event of a peace agreement. "We are ready to help them with various issues, especially, probably, what is happening in the air, because no one has things like we do," the US president told hosts of the American talk show Fox & Friends.
However, he ruled out the possibility of deploying American troops on the ground as part of security guarantees, saying: "You have my guarantees, and I am president."
Addressing France, Germany, and Great Britain, Trump said that "they want to have troops on the ground," claiming that European countries "will be the first to participate in this."
Trump added that "Ukraine will get a lot of land" when asked about territorial negotiations, but did not specify what that meant.
He expressed optimism about the possibility of an agreement between Kyiv and Moscow, saying that he believes Putin is "tired of this."