Trump Says Putin’s Dislike Of Zelenskyy Is Delaying Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks

President Donald Trump said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s dislike of Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy may be hindering efforts to arrange a summit.

“He doesn’t like him,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I have people I don’t like, I don’t like to meet with them.”

Trump confirmed he spoke with Putin in recent days, following his call last week after meeting European leaders, including Zelenskiy, to pitch a peace summit. While the White House maintains that Putin agreed in principle to meet Zelenskiy, the Kremlin has not confirmed, and no date for talks has been set yet.

When asked when the meeting is likely to occur, Trump said, “That’s gonna be up to them. It takes two to tango. They should meet, I think, before I have a meeting and probably close the deal.”

While acknowledging that the two don’t get along, Trump did warn that there may be consequences if the meeting does not take place at all. “There might be very big consequences,” he said during the bilateral meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung later on Monday. Trump also said that he had discussed denuclearization with Putin, hinting that both Russia and China would be willing to do it. 

U.S. markets were mixed during midday trade on Monday. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) was down 0.06%, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) slipped 0.49% and the Nasdaq-100 tracking Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) was in the green, up 0.13%. However, retail sentiment around SPY on Stocktwits trended in ‘bullish’ territory.

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