- Reuters
- 7 Hours ago
Trump and Putin in Alaska as Ukraine future is at stake
ANCHORAGE: Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Alaska for talks with his counterpart Donald Trump on Ukraine, as the two powers are set to discuss the future of Ukraine in the absence of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.
Just before the much-anticipated scheduled meeting, Flightradar24 earlier showed a Russian government plane landing in Alaska. That plane departed from Russia’s Far Eastern town Magadan, where the Russian president was earlier on Friday.
On the other hand, Air Force One carrying Trump landed in Alaska around 30 minutes before Putin’s arrival.
It was Trump who left the plane first and clapped while Putin walked towards him. After a warm handshake, the two presidents rode a car together for the summit.
About the talks, the White House said, according to AFP, that Trump would meet Putin in the presence of aides — thus ruling out the possibility of a one-on-one interaction.
In this connection, Reuters said Trump will be joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff in the meeting, according to the White House.
At a lunch following the meeting, Rubio, Witkoff, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles will also be present.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov appeared in Alaska, wearing a USSR sweatshirt which obviously couldn’t go unnoticed.
STILL KILLING
Just hours before the Alaska summit, Zelensky said that Moscow was still killing people and not showing that it wanted to end the war.
“There is no order, nor any signals from Moscow that it is preparing to end this war… they are also killing on the day of the negotiations,” Zelensky said in a video address posted on social media.
Meanwhile, Kyiv claimed that the Ukrainian forces had retaken six villages which Russia had captured in a recent push.
DESIRE FOR CEASEFIRE
Earlier in the day, Trump said he wanted to see a ceasefire “today” as he headed to Alaska on Friday for the summit with Putin to help end the deadliest war in Europe since World War Two.
Zelensky and his European allies fear Trump might sell out Ukraine by essentially freezing the conflict and recognising – if only informally – Russian control over one fifth of Ukraine.
Read more: Zelensky rules out ceding Donbas to Russia in any deal
Trump sought to assuage such concerns as he boarded Air Force One, saying he would let Ukraine decide on any possible territorial swaps. “I’m not here to negotiate for Ukraine, I’m here to get them at a table,” he said.
Asked what would make the meeting a success, he told reporters: “I want to see a ceasefire rapidly… I’m not going to be happy if it’s not today… I want the killing to stop.”
The US and Russian presidents are due to meet at a Cold War-era air force base in Alaska’s largest city at around 11am (1900 GMT) for their first face-to-face talks since Trump returned to the White House.
WHAT’S AT STAKE
Trump hopes a truce in the 3-1/2-year-old war will bolster his credentials as a global peacemaker worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Read more: Trump thinks Putin will make a deal, Rubio says security guarantees needed
For Putin, the summit is already a big win that he can portray as evidence that years of Western attempts to isolate Russia have unravelled and that Moscow is retaking its rightful place at the top table of international diplomacy.
Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev described the pre-summit mood as “combative” and said the two leaders would discuss not only Ukraine but the full spectrum of bilateral relations, Russia’s RIA news agency reported.
Trump, who once said he would end Russia’s war in Ukraine within 24 hours, conceded on Thursday it had proven a tougher task than he had expected. He said that if Friday’s talks went well, quickly arranging a second, three-way summit with Zelensky would be even more important than his encounter with Putin.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a three-way summit would be possible if the Alaska talks bore fruit, Interfax news agency reported. Peskov also said Friday’s talks could last 6-7 hours and that aides would take part in what had been expected to be one-to-one meetings.
Zelensky said the summit should open the way for a “just peace” and three-way talks that included him but added that Russia was continuing to wage war on Friday. A Russian ballistic missile earlier struck Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, killing one person and wounding another.
“It’s time to end the war, and the necessary steps must be taken by Russia. We are counting on America,” Zelensky wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
You May Also Like
