US President Donald Trump hoping for ‘peace’, thinks Russia’s Vladimir Putin ready to make a Ukraine deal

US President Donald Trump says he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to make a deal on ending his war in Ukraine.

Mr Trump, who is scheduled to meet with Mr Putin in Alaska on Friday, said he is unsure whether an immediate ceasefire can be achieved but expressed interest in brokering a peace agreement.

“He really, I believe now, he’s convinced that he’s going to make a deal, he’s going to make a deal. I think he’s going to, and we’re going to find out,” Mr Trump said in an interview on Fox News Radio.

While speaking at The White House on Thursday, Mr Trump said it will be great if Mr Putin and Ukrainian Leader Volodymyr Zelensky will “get along”.

“We have a meeting with President Putin tomorrow. I think it’s going to be a good meeting but the more important meeting will be the second meeting... We’re going to have a meeting with President Putin, President Zelensky, myself,” Mr Trump said.

“I think President Putin will make peace... we’ll see if they can get along,” he continued.

“I’ve solved six wars in the last six months, and I’m very proud of it. I thought the easiest one would be this one but it’s actually the most difficult.”

Earlier in the day, Mr Putin said that the United States was making “sincere efforts” to end the war in Ukraine and suggested that Russia and the US could agree on a nuclear arms deal as part of a broader push to strengthen peace.

Mr Putin earlier spoke to his most senior ministers and security officials as he prepared for the meeting, a presidential advisor said in a statement.

No joint statement is planned after the summit between Mr Putin and Mr Trump, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

“No, nothing is to be expected, nothing has been prepared and it is unlikely that there will be any document,” Mr Peskov told Interfax.

“Given that there will be a joint press conference, the president will of course outline the scope of the agreements and arrangements that can be reached,” he said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Mr Trump will go into the talks hoping to achieve a halt to the fighting in Ukraine but that a comprehensive solution to the war will take longer.

“To achieve a peace, I think we all recognise that there’ll have to be some conversation about security guarantees. There’ll have to be some conversation about ... territorial disputes and claims, and what they’re fighting over,” Mr Rubio told reporters at the State Department on Thursday.

“All these things will be part of a comprehensive thing. But I think the president’s hope is to achieve some stoppage of fighting so that those conversations can happen.”

Mr Zelensky said on Thursday that Ukraine and Russia had carried out another prisoner swap.

“A new exchange, 84 people,” Mr Zelensky wrote on social media.

Both soldiers and civilians are included, the Ukrainian leader said, thanking the United Arab Emirates for its help in organising the exchange that took place on the border with Belarus.

The Ukrainian Staff for Prisoner of War Affairs said this was the 67th exchange since the start of the war.

The Russian defence ministry confirmed the handover, reporting the return of 84 Russian prisoners of war.

Ukrainian drones struck two Russian cities on Thursday in attacks that injured at least 16 people, local authorities said.

Thirteen people were wounded, two seriously, when a drone struck an apartment building in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, the acting regional governor said.

Three civilians were wounded in the city of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine, according to the governor of that region, who posted video appearing to show a drone striking a car in the centre of the city.

with DPA