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Trump suggests other European leaders could be invited to participate in a second meeting following Friday’s summit in Alaska
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Donald Trump has said that Vladimir Putin is “not going to mess around with me”, ahead of his crunch meeting with the Russian leader in Alaska.
The US president also floated the idea that European leaders could be invited to participate in a second meeting, which would include Volodymyr Zelensky.
The main aim of tomorrow’s meeting is to set up talks between Putin and the Ukrainian president, Mr Trump told Fox News Radio, adding that he has three locations in mind for such a meeting.
The US president, who is gearing up to meet his Russian counterpart for the first time since 2018, said that he thinks both leaders “will make peace”.
Friday’s talks between the presidents will include a one-on-one meeting, a bilateral lunch with both delegations and a press conference, the White House announced.
Earlier on Thursday, the Russian leader praised Mr Trump’s “sincere efforts” towards ending the war in Ukraine, telling Kremlin officials the US is making “quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the fighting”.
The comments came after UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer hosted Mr Zelensky at Downing Street for talks, greeting the Ukrainian president with a warm hug outside his residence.
Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen says he’s worried that Russian President Putin is playing US President Trump like a “fiddle,” he told NBC News.
“I’m always in favor of talking, and we’d all like to see peace, but I’m very worried because, from day one, while Donald Trump said he was going to end the war in Ukraine, he has been played like a fiddle by Vladimir Putin,” Van Hollen told the outlet Thursday.
“All Putin sees is Trump’s weakness, and so I’m very worried that he will throw our allies and the people of Ukraine under the bus, which is what he’s done from day one,” he added.
The West must not be intimidated by Vladimir Putin, says the head of the British armed forces, ahead a crucial meeting between the Russian leader and US President Donald Trump.
Mr Trump says he believes Putin is ready to make a deal to end Russia’s war with Ukraine when the two leaders meet in Anchorage in Alaska on Friday.
It is set to be followed by a second meeting involving Volodymyr Zelensky, which could also be attended by European leaders, Mr Trump suggested on Thursday night.
But writing for The Telegraph, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin warned Nato allies against submitting to Moscow’s demands, and said: “Putin doesn’t want a war with Nato because he would lose. So we should not be cowed by his rhetoric or his campaign of sabotage, outrageous as it may be.”
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Sir Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelensky are united in their “strong resolve” to secure a just peace in Ukraine ahead of the summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
After a meeting at No 10, the prime minister and the Ukrainian president expressed cautious optimism about the prospect of a truce “as long as Putin takes action to prove he is serious” about ending the war, Downing Street said.
Mr Trump and the Russian president are due to meet in Alaska on Friday, raising fears the pair will try to decide the end of the war themselves, leaving Ukraine excluded and putting Europe’s future security in jeopardy.
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Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says this deal has “nothing to do” with a land swap.
“There is nothing to swap because all this land is Ukrainian,” the ex-foreign minister told CNN.
“The only viable solution for the land issue, which indeed is the biggest obstacle in negotiations, is to leave this matter in the gray zone, where both sides will claim their title of ownership on this land,” he said.
“If President Putin doesn’t make that concession, these talks are not going to go anywhere.”
Ahead of Donald Trump’s summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, retired U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark has said it is vital for the president to convince the Russian leader that he cannot win the war in Ukraine.
Speaking on The Record with Greta Van Susteren on Newsmax on Wednesday, Clark, a former Democratic presidential candidate in 2004, warned that Putin would not respond to conventional diplomatic threats.
“We’ve made so many threats to Russia over the last six months about consequences, and they mostly get postponed,” Clark said.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has indicated he wants to pursue a new nuclear weapons agreement with US President Donald Trump, ahead of their anticipated summit in Alaska on Friday.
The potential accord is framed by Mr Putin as part of a wider initiative to bolster global peace, coming amid persistent pressure from Mr Trump to de-escalate the three-and-a-half-year conflict in Ukraine.
Moscow views the Ukrainian situation as integral to a complex web of security concerns that have elevated East-West tensions to their highest point since the Cold War.
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Sir Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelensky are united in their “strong resolve” to secure a just peace in Ukraine ahead of the summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
After a meeting at No 10, the prime minister and the Ukrainian president expressed cautious optimism about the prospect of a truce “as long as Putin takes action to prove he is serious” about ending the war, Downing Street said.
Mr Trump and the Russian president are due to meet in Alaska on Friday, raising fears the pair will try to decide the end of the war themselves, leaving Ukraine excluded and putting Europe’s future security in jeopardy.
Read the full story.
A ceasefire is “critical,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday, ABC news reported.
“We want there to be a peace, we’re going to do everything we can to achieve one, but ultimately, it will be up to Ukraine and Russia to agree to one,” Rubio said at a State Department event.
“They’re going very fast because this was put together very quickly, and it’s in Alaska, so we’ve got to get there,” he said of the preparations.
“We’ll see how tomorrow plays out. As the president said, his hope is to interact with Mr. Putin tomorrow and sort of get a sense very quickly and early whether a peace is possible or not.”
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