The answer is no: Trump on persuading Putin to halt attacks on civilians

US President Donald Trump has expressed scepticism about his ability to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop targeting civilians in Ukraine during their upcoming meeting in Alaska.

When asked if he believed he could persuade Putin to halt such attacks, Trump said, "Well, I'll tell you what, I've had that conversation with him. I've had a lot of good conversations with him. Then I go home and I see that a rocket hit a nursing home or a rocket hit an apartment building and people are lying dead in the streets."

"So I guess the answer to that is no, because I've had this conversation. I want to end the war. It's Biden's war, but I want to end it. I'll be very proud to end this war, along with the five other wars I ended. But I guess the answer to that is probably no," the US President said. 

 

Trump made the remarks during his visit to the Kennedy Center in Washington on Wednesday (local time).

He also warned Putin of "very severe consequences" if Russia doesn't agree to stop the war with Ukraine after their meeting in Alaska on August 15. "Yes. There will be consequences. I don't have to say (on the type of consequences). There will be very severe consequences," said Trump.

The Alaska meeting aims to discuss a potential ceasefire and peace negotiations. Trump has proposed a second summit involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, contingent on meaningful progress toward ending the war.

"If the first meeting goes okay, we will have a quick second one. I would like to do it almost immediately. We will have a quick second meeting between President Putin, President Zelenskyy, and me if they would like to have me there...," Trump said.

However, the US president added that this second meeting will not take place if he does not hear the answers he wants.

"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 are not going to have a second meeting," said Trump.  Trump also said that he"could" raise the issue of the alleged Russian hacking of the US federal court filing system during his upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska later this week.

"I guess I could... They hack in, that's what they do. They are good at it. We are good at it; we are actually better at it. I have heard about it," Trump told reporters at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday (local time). 

His remarks came after reports that investigators have found evidence suggesting Russia's involvement in a recent breach of the US federal court document system, which contained highly sensitive records that could reveal sources and individuals charged with national security crimes, The New York Times reported.

The disclosure came just days before Trump's scheduled meeting with Putin in Alaska on Friday, where he plans to push for an end to the war in Ukraine.

While it remains unclear whether Russian intelligence or another country was behind the hack, officials have described it as a years-long effort to infiltrate the system. According to The New York Times, some searches targeted mid-level criminal cases in New York City and other jurisdictions, several involving defendants with Russian and Eastern European surnames.

Court administrators recently warned Justice Department officials, clerks, and chief judges in federal courts that "persistent and sophisticated cyber threat actors have recently compromised sealed records," according to an internal memo. The advisory urged immediate removal of the most sensitive documents from the system.

"This remains an URGENT MATTER that requires immediate action," the memo read, referring to guidance first issued in early 2021 after the system was initially infiltrated.

The breach is believed to have exposed documents related to criminal activity with overseas links across at least eight district courts. Last month, chief judges of district courts across the country were quietly told to transfer such cases off the regular system and were initially instructed not to discuss the matter with other judges in their districts.