Trump vows ' very severe consequences' if Putin doesn't agree to end war

WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump threatened Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Wednesday with "very severe consequences" if he does not agree to end the war in Ukraine during their upcoming summit in Alaska.

Asked if Russia would face reprecussions if Putin does not agree to end the conflict, Trump told reporters, "Yes, they will."

"They will face very serious consequences," he said during remarks at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

The remarks came just hours after Trump took part in a virtual meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders, which the US president said was "very good."

"I would rate it a 10, you know, very, very friendly," he said.

The comments come as the president prepares to sit down with Putin for the first time in his second term. Trump said the face-to-face summit, slated to take place in Alaska's most populous city of Anchorage, is likely to result in the establishment of a trilateral summit with Putin, Zelenskyy and himself.

"There's a very good chance that we're going to have a second meeting which will be more productive than the first, because the first is, I'm going to find out where we are and what we're doing," he said.

"If the first one goes okay, we'll have a quick second one. I would like to do it almost immediately, and we'll have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelenskyy and myself, if they'd like to have it," he said.

Trump said that while "certain great things" can be achieved during Friday's summit it is largely geared toward "setting the table" for a follow-up trilateral, which he acknowledged may not be in the offing.

"There may be no second meeting because if I feel that it's not appropriate to have it because I didn't get the answers that we have to have, then we're not going to have a second meeting," he said.