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European leaders are meeting virtually with Zelensky and Merz ahead of Trump’s summit with Putin on Friday
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US president Donald Trump has reportedly begun an urgent meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and German chancellor Friedrich Merz ahead of a summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska to end the war in Ukraine.
Other world leaders – including coalition of the willing members such as Sir Keir Starmer – are set to join the conversation.
European leaders remain concerned that the Russian president will set his sights on them if a lenient ceasefire deal on Ukraine is brokered by Trump, who said Europe’s heads of state are “great people who want to see a deal done.”
It comes as Russia’s foreign ministry said its stance on ending the three-and-a-half-year-old war remained “unchanged” since June 2024, in which Putin demanded a full Ukrainian withdrawal from four regions of the country that Russia has claimed as its own territory but does not fully control.
Zelensky said that Putin has demanded Ukrainian forces withdraw from Donetsk as part of any potential ceasefire deal, but the Ukrainian leader has vowed Ukraine would “never leave” the Donbas and warned Mr Putin’s troops could use it as a spring board for a future invasion.
Wayne Jordash KC, President of Global Rights Compliance and lead of the Mobile Justice Teams, has emphasised the need to stand behind Ukraine and international law as European leaders are meeting with Trump and Zelensky ahead of Friday’s summit with Putin.
“Any ceasefire deal agreed in Alaska that forces Ukraine into conceding its sovereign territory will amount to a violation of the UN Charter – the most fundamental principle of international law – and an abandonment of Ukrainian civilians living under brutal Russian occupation.
“Today, European leaders have an opportunity to demonstrate their unwavering commitment to supporting Ukraine and upholding international law. European leaders are legally obliged to ensure that illegal attempts to redraw Ukraine’s borders through force are resisted today, tomorrow and for all time. Whether Crimea, Donbas or any other region, Ukraine’s borders are not bargaining chips. Any attempt to treat them as such is legally void and all states are under a duty to declare and resist.
“A ceasefire must be accompanied by a credible deal which delivers a path to justice for Ukrainian civilians who have endured widespread and systematic atrocities at the hands of Russian forces.”
Two days after he twice said he was ‘going to Russia‘ for his Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump used a Soviet-era name to describe Russia’s second-largest city as he attacked a former adviser on social media.
Writing on Truth Social to complain about “very unfair media” coverage of his upcoming summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin, he said the press would even go so far to say he’d made a “bad deal” even if he reached an agreement for the United States to acquire “Moscow and Leningrad” without giving up anything in return.
The president appeared to be unaware of one small detail: The city he called “Leningrad” is actually called St. Petersburg and has been since city residents voted to ditch the Soviet-era name in June 1991.
Andrew Feinberg, our DC correspondent, reports:
Trump and Putin will sit face-to-face for the first time in seven years on Friday for talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
The Russian president will fly into Anchorage, Alaska, where he will meet his US counterpart at a remote military installation which plays host to some of America’s most fearsome fighter jets. It has been visited by several US presidents in the past.
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska’s largest military base, combines the Air Force’s Elmendorf base with the US Army’s Fort Richardson.
The mission of the base is to defend US interests in the Asia Pacific region. It had particular strategic importance during the Cold War as the closest point between Alaska and Russia, lying just 3 miles apart.
It is home to more than 32,000 people, which is roughly 10 per cent of Anchorage’s entire population.
Alex Croft reports:
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent has said sanctions or secondary tariffs could grow if president Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin does not go well.
Mr Bessent also called on European leaders to also leverage sanctions in the event the meeting fails to be productive.
“He will make it clear to president Putin that all options are on the table,” Mr Bessent told Bloomberg Television in an interview.
Donald Trump has complained that he id receiving unfair media coverage about his meeting with Vladimir Putin.
“Very unfair media is at work on my meeting with Putin,” the US president wrote on Truth Social.
A number of media and political figures have been critical of the upcoming meeting, which will not include Volodymyr Zelensky, amid fears that Mr Trump could make proposals which Ukraine and its allies would regard as a capitulation.
“Constantly quoting fired losers and really dumb people like John Bolton, who just said that, even though the meeting is on American soil, ‘Putin has already won.’
“What’s that all about? We are winning on EVERYTHING,” he added. “The Fake News is working overtime (No tax on overtime!). If I got Moscow and Leningrad free, as part of the deal with Russia, the Fake News would say that I made a bad deal!”
“Donald Trump is meeting Vladimir Putin in Alaska in what the US president has said may be little more than a “look see”, but in truth may prove an encounter that defines Europe -and global security – for decades.
“From Trump’s perspective, the summit may be part of his drive for a Nobel Peace Prize by ending Putin’s war against Ukraine using the “art of the deal”. Putin, however, is likely to prevail and his agenda is the art of the steal – specifically a massive grab of his neighbour’s land.”
World affairs editor Sam Kiley looks at the art of the deal versus the art of the steal, ahead of what could be a pivotal meeting on the Ukraine war.
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