President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened “extreme penalties” in opposition to Russia if Vladimir Putin didn’t conform to cease his warfare on Ukraine
“There can be penalties,” Trump stated on the Kennedy Middle in Washington as he took questions on his assembly on Friday with Russia’s president in Alaska.
Trump didn’t elaborate on what these penalties can be. When requested in the event that they would come with sanctions or tariffs, Trump solely stated he did not must say.
The feedback got here after a digital convention between Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders. Trump described the dialog with the leaders as “very pleasant” and European leaders stated afterward Trump informed them he would press Putin for a ceasefire.
President Donald Trump takes a query from the press throughout a go to to the Kennedy Middle in Washington, August 13, 2025.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Photos
Zelenskyy, talking in Berlin on Wednesday after the decision, stated he suggested Trump and different officers that Putin is “bluffing” in pursuing peace.
“I informed my colleagues, the U.S. president and our European associates, that Putin undoubtedly doesn’t need peace. He desires the occupation of our nation. And all of us actually perceive that. Putin will be unable to deceive anybody. We’d like additional strain for peace. Not solely American, but in addition European sanctions,” Zelenskyy stated.
“We talked in regards to the assembly in Alaska,” Zelenskyy added. “We hope that the central subject of the assembly can be a ceasefire. An instantaneous ceasefire. The U.S. president has repeatedly stated this. He instructed to me that after the assembly in Alaska we could have contact. And we’ll talk about all the outcomes, if there are any. And we’ll decide the following mutual steps.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attend a chat of European leaders with the US President on the Ukraine warfare forward of the summit between the US and Russian leaders, August 13, 2025.
John MacDougall/Pool/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Although particulars of Friday’s assembly are nonetheless being ironed out, Putin and Trump are scheduled to fulfill at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, a White Home official confirmed to ABC Information.
Trump on Wednesday stated it was not his name to not invite Zelenskyy to Friday’s summit, and that he subsequent desires to see a gathering between Zelenskyy and Putin in addition to the U.S. if crucial.
“There’s an excellent probability that we’ll have a second assembly, which can be extra productive than the primary, as a result of the primary is — I’ll discover out the place we’re and what we’re doing,” Trump stated.
Requested if he believes he might persuade Putin to cease concentrating on civilians in Ukraine, Trump stated no and repeated the frustration he is expressed about Putin previously few weeks.
Trump on the similar time instructed a second assembly will not happen if he does not get what he wants from Putin.
“Now, there could also be no second assembly as a result of if I really feel that it isn’t applicable to have it as a result of I did not get the solutions that now we have to have, then we’re not going to have a second assembly,” Trump stated.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a gathering with head of the Federal Taxation Service Daniil Yegorov on the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia August 13, 2025.
Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool by way of Reuters
Zelenskyy is pushing for for a three-way assembly between Russia, Ukraine and the US, arguing it’s “unimaginable to unravel this with out Ukraine.”
European governments have expressed their help for Ukraine in any coming peace negotiations, urging Trump to facilitate European and Ukrainian involvement in any such discussions.
French President Emmanuel Macron stated on Wednesday that Trump “was very clear on the truth that the what the US desires is to acquire a ceasefire throughout this assembly in Alaska.”
“The second component that was very clearly expressed by President Trump is that the territorial issues from Ukraine can and can solely be negotiated by the Ukrainian president,” Macron continued. “That is the place that we help, and it has been very clearly expressed by President Trump, and so this heralds our conferences sooner or later.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated “actual progress” was made within the digital assembly and stated the coalition was able to help Friday’s assembly between Trump and Putin.
Starmer additionally stated the group is able to implement plans if a ceasefire is reached, together with safety ensures for Ukraine as soon as the hostilities have stopped.
A lady walks previous a closely broken residential constructing following a Russian strike within the city of Bilozerske, Donetsk area of Ukraine, on August 12, 2025.
Genya Savilov/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Throughout a information convention in Moscow on Wednesday, the Russian Ministry of Overseas Affairs deputy spokesperson Alexei Fadeev stated Russia considers “the consultations requested by the Europeans as politically and virtually insignificant.”
Fadeev additionally stated Russia’s stance on ending the warfare in Ukraine has not modified since Putin laid out his circumstances final yr: the total withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from elements of the Ukrainian areas of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson that they nonetheless management, and Ukraine abandoning its plans to hitch the NATO alliance.
Fadeev informed reporters that the upcoming assembly between Putin and Trump in Alaska will permit the 2 leaders to give attention to discussing all present points between their nations, from the Ukraine warfare to the normalization of relations.
Lengthy-range strikes by Russia and Ukraine continued in a single day into Wednesday.
Ukraine’s air pressure stated Russia launched 49 drones and two North Korean-made ballistic missiles into the nation in a single day, of which 32 drones and each missiles have been shot down or suppressed. Russia’s Protection Ministry, in the meantime, stated its forces shot down 63 Ukrainian drones in a single day.
ABC Information’ Kelsey Walsh, Natalia Kushnir, Anna Sergeeva, Yulia Drozd, Hannah Demissie, Morgan Winsor and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
