US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are preparing for a highly anticipated summit in Alaska on the Ukraine war
Trump says Putin won’t ” mess around with me” at their first one-on-one meeting in six years
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is notably excluded from the talks, and has warned that decisions made in his absence will be meaningless
What do they want? Putin consistently shows a desire to win Ukrainian territory.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with tens of thousands of soldiers killed on both sides.
US President Donald Trump said he thought Vladimir Putin was ready to make a deal on ending his war in Ukraine after the Russian president floated the prospect of a nuclear arms agreement on the eve of their summit in Alaska.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his European allies have intensified their efforts this week to prevent any deal between the US and Russia emerging from Friday’s summit that leaves Ukraine vulnerable to future attack.
“I think he’s going to make a deal,” Trump said in a Fox News radio interview, adding that if the meeting went well, he would call Zelenskiy and European leaders afterwards, and that if it went badly, he would not.
The aim of Friday’s talks with Putin is to set up a second meeting including Ukraine, Trump said, adding: “I don’t know that we’re going to get an immediate ceasefire.”
Putin earlier spoke to his most senior ministers and security officials as he prepared for a meeting with Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday that could shape the endgame to the largest war in Europe since World War Two.
In televised comments, Putin said the US was “making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict.
” This was happening, Putin said, “in order to create long-term conditions for peace between our countries, and in Europe, and in the world as a whole – if, by the next stages, we reach agreements in the area of control over strategic offensive weapons.”
His comments signalled that Russia will raise nuclear arms control as part of a wide-ranging discussion on security when he sits down with Trump .
