President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday night that efforts to negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict will continue next week in Moscow, led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and possibly joined by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

JEFF MASON, REUTERS: Do you think that Ukraine was being asked to give too much land back to Russia? I know at one point you said it shouldn’t have to give any back. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It’s really up, look, the way it’s going, if you look, it’s just moving in one direction. So eventually, that’s land that over the next couple of months might be gotten by Russia anyway. So do you want to fight and lose another 50,000, 60,000 people? Or do you want to do something now? In some cases, the land is going in the other direction. So they’re negotiating, they’re trying to get it done. You want to have a border? You can’t have a border that goes through a highway, or a border that goes through the middle of a town, so that it doesn’t work. So it’s a long, it’s a long, complicated process. Very sad, because so many people are being killed. MASON: What’s the next step? TRUMP: They’re going to keep talking, they’re talking to Russia now. Steve Witkoff is going over, maybe with Jared, I’m not sure about Jared going. But he’s involved in the process, smart guy. And they’re going to be meeting with President Putin in Moscow. MASON: Next week in Moscow? TRUMP: I think so, yes. REPORTER: What kind of concessions are the Russians going to have to make? TRUMP: They’re making concessions. The big concession is they stop fighting, and they don’t take any more land. Again, it’s a war that would have never happened if I was president. This was not anything that was going to happen. This happened because of stupidity. It’s too bad. REPORTER: If they are going to Russia next week, does that mean that Thanksgiving deadline doesn’t stand anymore? TRUMP: We’re going to see what happens. They set up a date, and the date is going to be sometime in the very near future. REPORTER: Does there have to be a deadline? TRUMP: I don’t have a deadline. You know what the deadline for me is? When it’s over. And I think everybody’s tired of fighting at this moment. They’re losing too many people. REPORTER: Have you heard this audio that Bloomberg has of Witkoff coaching the Russians on how to appeal to you? TRUMP: I haven’t heard it, no. But it’s a standard thing. Because he’s got to sell this to Ukraine, he’s got to sell Ukraine to Russia. That’s what a dealmaker does. He’s got to say, look, they want this, you’ve got to convince them of this. You know, that’s a very standard form of standard negotiation. I haven’t heard it, but I heard it’s standard negotiation.

RealClearPolitics Videos