Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly wants to see ‘criminal’ Vladimir Putin ‘sitting in a prison cell’

PHOENIX – U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly hopes Vladimir Putin agrees to a ceasefire in the war with Ukraine during his upcoming meeting with President Donald Trump, but the Arizona Democrat has a different eventual destination in mind for the Russian leader.

“I hope one day to see him sitting in a prison cell somewhere because of the number of people he has just intentionally murdered,” Kelly told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News on Thursday.

The U.S. and Russian presidents are scheduled to discuss the war in Ukraine at an Air Force base in Alaska on Friday. Kelly, a former Navy pilot, has reservations about the location.

“Putin is a war criminal. He probably shouldn’t be on U.S. soil,” Kelly said.

Sen. Mark Kelly has been in Ukraine three times since start of war

Kelly has visited Ukraine three times since it was invaded by Russia in February 2022, most recently in March of this year.

“I went to a veterans hospital, and what the nurses saw in their community when the Russians came was just horrific,” Kelly said Thursday. “Russian troops murdering children in front of their parents, and then murdering the parents. I spoke to these nurses who witnessed this.”

Arizona’s senior senator believes Trump should have extracted concessions from Putin before agreeing to one-on-one talks.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian and European officials have expressed concerns that the Trump-Putin meeting could lead to an outcome that favors Russian goals.

“The president says he’s a master negotiator — the art of the deal. Let’s see if we can get him to stop killing Ukrainians,” Kelly said.

What is Donald Trump expecting from meeting with Vladimir Putin?

Trump has said any major agreement could involve land swaps and that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin could meet next or he could meet with both leaders.

“There’s a very good chance that we’re going to have a second meeting, which will be more productive than the first, because the first is I’m going to find out where we are and what we’re doing,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “It’s going to be a very important meeting, but it’s setting the table for the second meeting.”

Kelly said he thinks Zelenskyy should have been included in Friday’s summit.

“He (Trump) thinks he’s got this special relationship with Putin,” Kelly said. “My view is Putin’s a criminal. We’ve got to hold him accountable.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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