Retired Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer told Newsmax on Thursday that next week’s scheduled meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin should be “the beginning of the end of the war.”

The Kremlin has announced that the two leaders will meet in person for the first time in Trump’s second term. Moscow has rejected Trump’s idea of a three-way summit with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, maintaining its opposition to such talks.

“I like to believe it’s the beginning of the end of the war. The only way this ends is if President Trump sits down face to face with Putin and they make a deal. I’m skeptical about Zelenskyy being there for anything more than comic relief.

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