President Donald Trump "has the ability, has the leverage, has the cards" to use during his summit Friday in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin to make him understand he needs to stop his country's war with Ukraine, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor told Newsmax on Friday.
"As President Trump has said, [Putin] needs to stop the killing," Taylor said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "President Putin will not do it until he is forced. And President Trump has the ability, has the leverage to make that happen. As President Trump says, he'll know very soon, in the meeting, whether or not President Putin is ready to do that."
Trump has acknowledged that there is a 25% chance that the meeting could fail to bring an agreement. He also said there is a possibility of involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a follow‑up summit if Friday's talks go well.
But if a deal is not reached, Trump has been clear that sanctions on Russian oil will go into effect, said Taylor.
"Those nations that buy Russian oil and provide the flow of income of money into Russia that allows them to pursue this war, those nations will face very high tariffs," he said. "He's already made good on the first part of that. Turns out that India is now the single largest purchaser of Russian oil. It just overtook China. And President Trump has put tariffs, 50% tariffs, on imports here from India."
Taylor also agreed that Zelenskyy must attend discussions "sooner or later."
"A ceasefire has to have both sides, has to have the Russians, has to have the Ukrainians," he said. "President Trump has indicated that the second meeting is a more important meeting."
Trump's relationship with Putin could also affect the talks, but their relationship is "not the issue," said Taylor.
"The issue is whether President Trump will put enough pressure on President Putin, friendly or not," to reach a ceasefire, he added.
"It's fine to be able to talk to someone," said the former ambassador. "However, the goal is not a friendly relationship. The goal is a ceasefire. And President Putin is so far standing in the way."
Taylor also credited Trump's persistence on Ukraine, telling Newsmax that if peace comes, it will be because of the president's push.
"He has made ending this war the top foreign policy priority of his administration," he pointed out. "If he can put pressure on Putin and convince Putin he cannot win, then President Trump will win."
Meanwhile, recent polling shows 69% of Ukrainians favor ending the war, but "by the same margin, 70% of Ukrainians, even though as tired as they are, will not give up territory," said Taylor. "They know they don't want to live under Russia."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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