meeting

The much-anticipated summit between the leaders of Russia and United States concluded without a deal to end the war in Ukraine.

Despite this, US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin say “great progress” was made at “constructive” talks in Alaska.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not invited. Instead, after a lengthy phone call with President Trump, he’s heading to the White House on Monday.

So, were ceasefire options discussed behind closed doors?

Could an end to the war finally be in sight?

And what does the summit mean for Russian-American relations?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Andrei Fedorov – Former deputy foreign minister of Russia

Thomas Pickering – Former US ambassador to Russia and the United Nations

Oleksiy Goncharenko – Politician and member of the Ukrainian parliament

ANCHORAGE — President Trump made his expectations clear entering a summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday: “I won’t be happy if I walk away without some form of a ceasefire,” he said aboard Air Force One.

Yet he did, ending his meeting with the Russian leader with curt remarks, taking no questions from the press and offering no sense of a breakthrough toward peace in Ukraine.

It was an immediate success for Putin, who was greeted on the tarmac of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson with applause and smiles from the American president, offered a ride in his iconic vehicle. After years in isolation over his repeated invasions of Ukraine, facing an indictment from the International Criminal Court over war crimes, a red carpet awaited Putin on U.S. soil.

Both men referenced “agreements” in statements to reporters. But Trump implied the question that matters most — whether Russia is prepared to implement a ceasefire — remains unresolved.

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“We had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to. There are just a very few that are left,” Trump said. “Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there.”

In a follow-up interview on Fox News, Trump said the meeting went well. “But we’ll see,” he said. “You know, you have to get a deal.”

Trump’s failure to secure a ceasefire from Putin surprised few analysts, who have seen him pressing Russian advantages on the battlefield and offering no indication he plans to relent.

The question is whether Putin will be able to sustain Trump’s goodwill when the war continues grinding on. On Friday alone, hours before the summit began, Russian forces struck a civilian market in the Ukrainian city of Sumy.

The Russian delegation left immediately after the press availability, providing no comments to the press corps on how the meetings went behind closed doors. And after sitting down with Fox, Trump promptly left Anchorage for Washington. The White House issued no statements, readouts or fact sheets on the summit. Administration officials fell silent.

“Putin is going to have to give Trump some kind of concession so that he is not completely embarrassed,” said Darren Kew, dean of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego, “probably a pledge of a ceasefire very soon — one of Trump’s key demands — followed by a promise to meet the Ukrainians for talks this fall.”

“Both serve Putin’s goals of delay and appeasing Trump, while allowing more time for Russian battlefield victories,” Kew added, “since ceasefires can easily be broken, and peace talks can drag on for years.”

In brief remarks of his own, Putin said that points of agreement reached with Trump would likely face opposition across Europe, including from Ukraine itself, warning continental allies not to “torpedo nascent progress” in follow-up talks with the White House.

“I would like to hope that the agreement that we have reached together will help us bring us close to that goal, and will pave the path toward peace in Ukraine,” Putin said. “We expect that Kyiv and European capitals will perceive that constructively, and that they won’t throw a wrench in the works.”

It was an acknowledgment that whatever terms agreed upon bilaterally between Putin and Trump’s team are almost certainly unacceptable to Ukraine, a party to the conflict that has lost hundreds of thousands of lives fighting Russia’s invasion since February 2022.

Trump told Fox that a Russian takeover of Ukrainian lands was discussed and “agreed upon,” pending Ukrainian approval — an unlikely prospect given vocal opposition from Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and provisions in the Ukrainian Constitution that prohibit the concession of territory.

“Those are points that we negotiated, and those are points that we largely have agreed upon, actually. I think we’ve agreed on a lot,” Trump said. “I think we’re pretty close to a deal. Now, look. Ukraine has to agree to it. Maybe they’ll say no.”

Europe and Ukraine have argued that conceding land to Putin is not enough. After invading Crimea in 2014, and successfully holding it, Putin came back for more territory in the eastern Donbas — only to launch a full-scale invasion of the country in 2022.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said this week that its war aims remain unchanged.

“We’re convinced that in order to make the settlement last in the long-term, we need to eliminate all the primary roots, the primary causes of that conflict,” Putin said, “to consider all legitimate concerns of Russia, and to reinstate a just balance of security in Europe, and in the world on the whole.”

“The root causes of the conflict,” he added, “must be resolved.”

In the lead-up to his much-touted Friday summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, United States President Donald Trump expressed confidence in his ability to make concrete progress towards securing a ceasefire in Ukraine at the meeting.

Putin received the red carpet treatment as he was met with a lengthy handshake by Trump as he deplaned at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson military facility in the Alaskan city of Anchorage.

The warm greeting set a congenial tone for what were always going to be tough negotiations. But there was a more subdued atmosphere a few hours later as Trump and Putin departed on their respective planes – with no clear breakthrough on the war in Ukraine.

Here are some key takeaways from their meeting:

‘No deal until there’s a deal’

While the meeting was anticipated to take about seven hours, it wrapped up in less than three. Trump and Putin addressed a gathering of journalists after the talks with relatively brief pre-prepared statements. Neither leader took any questions.

Putin said his country is committed to ending the war, but the conflict’s “primary causes” must be eliminated for an agreement to be long-lasting.

Putin also warned Ukraine and the European Union against throwing a “wrench in the works” and cautioned against attempts to use “backroom dealings to conduct provocations to torpedo the nascent progress”.

A relatively subdued Trump praised the “extremely productive meeting”, in which he said “many points were agreed to”. He said there is a “very good chance of getting there” – referring to a ceasefire – but conceded that there remain sticking points with Moscow, including at least one “significant” one.

He cautioned that it’s “ultimately up to them” – referring to Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” he said.

And there was none by the time Trump and Putin left Alaska.

A PR coup for Putin

The Russian leader has become an increasingly maligned and isolated figure in the West since waging war on Ukraine in February 2022.

But on Friday, that ended, with a red carpet welcome, a flypast by US fighter jets and warm applause from Trump.

Putin himself seemed pleased, grinning out the window as he drove off the tarmac with Trump in the presidential Cadillac limousine known as “The Beast”.

“For three years they [Western media] have been talking about Russia’s isolation, and today they saw the red carpet that greeted the Russian president in the United States,” Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, gloated after the summit, on Telegram.

Talking business

Before the meeting, it was widely anticipated that Putin would attempt to dilute peace talks with talk of bilateral trade and cooperation.

Trump had asserted that there would be no discussion of business with Putin until the pair had made substantive progress on bringing about a ceasefire in Ukraine.

This plan, however, seems to have been derailed somewhat, with the Russian president saying in his post-meeting statement that the pair discussed their collaboration in the areas of tech and space.

“It’s clear that US and Russian investment and business cooperation has tremendous potential. Russia and the US can offer each other so much. In trade, digital, high-tech and in space exploration, [and] we see that Arctic cooperation is also very possible,” he told reporters.

Russia has previously tried to pitch its vast reserves of rare earth minerals – critical for several cutting edge sectors – to the US to broker a breakthrough.

Next up: Another meeting – and pressure on Ukraine

As Trump thanked Putin for his time, he said he hoped they would meet again soon. Putin quickly responded by saying, in English with a laugh, “Next time, in Moscow”.

“I’ll get a little heat on that one, but I could see it possibly happening,” he said in response.

Trump has previously asserted that he hopes to host a trilateral meeting on ending the war in Ukraine very soon, this time attended by Ukraine’s Zelenskyy, too. In Alaska, the US leader said he would now call NATO officials and Zelenskyy to discuss the meeting.

In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity after the meeting, Trump was asked how he rated the summit on a scale of 10. He described the meet as a “10 out of 10”.

“We got along great,” he said.

Then, he emphasised the importance of the Ukrainian leader agreeing to a deal.

“Now, it’s really up to President Zelenskyy to get it done. And I would also say the European nations, they have to get involved a little bit. But it’s up to President Zelenskyy,” he said, adding that he’ll attend the next meeting “if they’d like”.

“Make a deal,” he said, in a message apparently for Zelenskyy.

US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held what was billed as a joint press conference after their meeting in Alaska on Friday.

After the leaders left the room, BBC North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher and Russia editor Steve Rosenberg stayed on to unpack the takeaways.

Video produced by Meiying Wu.

US President Donald Trump says he and Russian President Vladimir Putin made progress during three hours of talks in Alaska to resolve the Russia-Ukraine war, but that there’s “no deal.”. Putin said they are “ready to work” on outstanding issues.

ANCHORAGE — President Trump is on his way to Alaska for a high-stakes summit with Vladimir Putin, indicating he will take a tougher line with the Russian leader over a ceasefire in Ukraine after three brutal years of war.

Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said Putin would face “economically severe” consequences if negotiations in Anchorage today fail to yield progress toward peace. He said that only Ukraine could decide whether to cede territory to Moscow. And he expressed support for U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine in any future peace agreement, so long as they fall short of NATO membership for the beleaguered nation.

“Yes, it would be very severe,” Trump said. “Very severe.”

Traveling from Moscow, Putin is bringing along several Russian business leaders, according to the Kremlin, a sign he hopes to begin discussions on normalizing relations with Washington. But Trump said he would not discuss business opportunities until the war is settled.

It’s a position that will relieve allies in Europe that have been hoping Trump would approach Putin with a firm hand, after months of applying pressure on Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to prepare to make concessions to Moscow.

Zelensky was not invited to the Alaska negotiations. But Trump said he hoped his meeting on Friday would lead to direct talks “very shortly.”

Trump had said in recent days that a peace deal would include the “swapping” of land, a prospect roundly rejected in Kyiv. The Ukrainian constitution prohibits territorial concessions without the support of a public referendum.

“They’ll be discussed, but I’ve got to let Ukraine make that decision,” the president said of land swaps. “I’m not here to negotiate for Ukraine. I’m here to get them to the table.”

Trump will host Putin at the Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage later on Friday, the first meeting between a U.S. and Russian president since 2021.

Russian Foreign Ministry officials said Wednesday that Putin’s war aims remain “unchanged.” And an aggressive Russian advance along the front lines this week provided evidence to military analysts that Moscow has no plans to implement a ceasefire.

The two leaders are expected to greet one another on the tarmac before meeting privately. Afterward, they will take an expanded lunch meeting with their aides, followed by a news conference, according to the White House.

LONDON — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday praised President Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine, more than three years after Moscow launched its invasion, as the two leaders prepared for a pivotal U.S.–Russia summit Friday in Alaska.

Following a meeting Thursday with top government officials on the summit, Putin said in a short video released by the Kremlin that the Trump administration was making “quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities” and to “reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved.”

Putin also suggested that “long-term conditions of peace between our countries, and in Europe, and in the world as a whole,” could be reached under an agreement with the U.S. on nuclear arms control.

In Washington, Trump said there was a 25% chance that the summit would fail, but he also floated the idea that, if the meeting succeeds, he could bring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Alaska for a subsequent, three-way meeting.

In a radio interview with Fox News, Trump also said he might be willing to stay in Alaska longer, depending on what happens with Putin.

Meanwhile, Zelensky and other European leaders worked to ensure their interests are taken into account when Trump and Putin meet in Anchorage.

Uncertainty for Europe

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed Zelensky to London on Thursday in a show of British support for Ukraine a day before the critical Trump-Putin meeting. The two embraced warmly outside Starmer’s offices at 10 Downing Street without making any comments, and Zelensky departed about an hour later.

Zelensky’s trip to the British capital came a day after he took part in virtual meetings from Berlin with Trump and the leaders of several European countries. Those leaders said that Trump had assured them that he would make a priority of trying to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine when he meets with Putin.

Speaking after the meetings to reporters, Trump warned of “very severe consequences” for Russia if Putin doesn’t agree to stop the war against Ukraine after Friday’s meeting.

While some European leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, praised Wednesday’s video conference with Trump as constructive, uncertainty remained over how the U.S. leader — whose rhetoric toward both Zelensky and Putin has evolved dramatically since retaking office this year — would conduct negotiations in the absence of any other interested parties.

Both Zelensky and the Europeans have worried that the bilateral U.S.-Russia summit would leave them and their interests sidelined, and that any conclusions could favor Moscow and leave Ukraine and Europe’s future security in jeopardy.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov tamped down expectations for any breakthroughs from the Friday summit, saying there were no plans to sign documents and that it would be a “big mistake” to predict the results of the negotiations, according to Russian news outlet Interfax.

The Kremlin on Thursday said the meeting between Trump and Putin would begin at 11:30 a.m. local time. Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters that Trump and Putin will first sit down for a one-on-one meeting followed by a meeting between the two delegations. Then talks will continue over “a working breakfast.” A joint news conference will follow.

Trump contradicted the Kremlin, saying that no decisions have been made about holding a news conference with Putin. The uncertainty reflects just how much about the summit, including its schedule, remains unsettled.

Ukraine’s territorial integrity

Starmer said Wednesday that the Alaska summit could be a path to a ceasefire in Ukraine, but he also alluded to European concerns that Trump may strike a deal that forces Ukraine to cede territory to Russia. He warned that Western allies must be prepared to step up pressure on Russia if necessary.

During a call Wednesday among leaders of countries involved in the “coalition of the willing” — those who are prepared to help police any future peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv — Starmer stressed that any ceasefire deal must protect the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine.

“International borders cannot be, and must not be changed by force,’’ he said.

Kyiv has long insisted that safeguards against future Russian attacks provided by its Western allies would be a precondition for achieving a durable end to the fighting. Yet many Western governments have been hesitant to commit military personnel.

Countries in the coalition, which includes France and the U.K., have been trying for months to secure U.S. security backing, should it be required. Following Wednesday’s virtual meetings, Macron said Trump told the assembled leaders that while NATO must not be part of future security guarantees, “the United States and all the parties involved should take part.”

“It’s a very important clarification that we have received,” Macron said.

Trump did not reference any U.S. security commitments during his comments to reporters on Wednesday.

Some Ukrainians are skeptical

With another high-level meeting on their country’s future on the horizon, some Ukrainians expressed skepticism about the summit’s prospects.

Oleksandra Kozlova, 39, who works at a digital agency in Kyiv, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she believes Ukrainians “have already lost hope” that meaningful progress can be made toward ending the war.

“I don’t think this round will be decisive,” she said. “There have already been enough meetings and negotiations promising us, ordinary people, that something will be resolved, that things will get better, that the war will end. Unfortunately, this has not happened, so personally I don’t see any changes coming.”

Anton Vyshniak, a car salesman in Kyiv, said Ukraine’s priority now should be saving the lives of its military service members, even at the expense of territorial concessions.

“At the moment, the most important thing is to preserve the lives of male and female military personnel. After all, there are not many human resources left,” he said. “Borders are borders, but human lives are priceless.”

Russia and Ukraine trade strikes

Zelensky said Thursday that Ukraine had secured the release of 84 people from Russian captivity, including both soldiers and civilians. Those freed included people held by Russia since 2014, 2016 and 2017, as well as soldiers who had defended the now Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol, Zelensky wrote on Telegram.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday that it too had received 84 soldiers as part of a prisoner exchange.

In other developments, Russian strikes in Ukraine’s Sumy region overnight Wednesday resulted in numerous injuries, Ukrainian regional officials said. A missile strike on a village in the Seredyna-Budska community wounded a 7-year-old girl and a 27-year-old man, according to regional governor Oleh Hryhorov. The girl was hospitalized in stable condition.

In Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack damaged several apartment buildings in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, near the border with Ukraine, where 13 civilians were wounded, according to acting governor of the region, Yuri Slyusar. Two of the wounded were hospitalized in serious condition, Slyusar said.

Pylas and Spike write for the Associated Press. Spike reported from Budapest, Hungary. AP writers Lorne Cook in Brussels; Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine; Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England; Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and United States President Donald Trump will meet on Friday in Alaska to discuss ending Moscow’s three-year-long war in Ukraine.

The leaders are expected to discuss “land swapping”, suggesting that Trump may support an agreement where Russia will maintain control of some of the Ukrainian territory it currently occupies, but not all.

In a news conference at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said, “Russia’s occupied a big portion of Ukraine. They occupied prime territory. We’re going to try to get some of that territory back for Ukraine.”

But the idea of a swap also suggests that Ukraine might need to give up some land that it currently controls.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly said that any deal involving the ceding of Ukrainian land to Russia would be unsuccessful.

What does Putin want?

Last month, Trump warned that tougher sanctions would be put in place unless Russia halted fighting with Ukraine within 50 days. That deadline has now passed, and no new measures have hit Moscow, but the US has imposed 50 percent tariffs on India to punish it for its continued purchase of Russian oil.

Trump has demanded that Putin agree to a ceasefire on Friday to avoid the US imposing further tariffs on other countries buying Russian energy assets.

Putin has stated that he wants full control of Ukraine’s eastern regions, including Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, parts of which Russia annexed in 2022, along with Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.

If Kyiv were to agree, it would mean withdrawing troops from parts of Luhansk and Donetsk, where much of the recent fighting has been concentrated.

Bloomberg reported on August 8 that US and Russian officials were working towards an agreement that would “freeze the war”, and allow Moscow to keep the territory it has taken.

In addition, Putin has consistently demanded that Ukraine remain a neutral state, abandoning its ambitions to join NATO.

Can Ukraine even cede territory?

Ukraine giving up land it has lost during this war and previously, in 2014, is not a welcome option.

On Saturday, Zelenskyy said that he would not “gift” land to Russia, and that Ukrainians would not give up their land to Russian occupiers.

More than this, ceding any territory would be illegal under the Ukrainian constitution.

How much of Ukraine does Russia control?

Russia occupies about one-fifth – 114,500 square km (44,600 square miles) – of Ukraine’s land.

The active front line stretches some 1,000km (620 miles) through the regions of Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson.

Russia controls about three-quarters of the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions.

Additionally, small parts of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions of Ukraine are under Russian occupation. Across the Sumy and Kharkiv regions, Russia controls about 400 sq km (154 sq miles) of territory. In Dnipropetrovsk, Russia has taken a tiny area near the border.

Russia controls about 46,570 sq km (17,981 sq miles), or 88 percent, of the territory known as Donbas, made up of the Luhansk and Donbas regions. Russia occupies almost all of Luhansk and three-quarters of Donetsk.

Ukraine still holds about 6,600 sq km (2,550 sq miles) of Donbas, although Russia has been focusing most of its energy along the front in Donetsk, pushing towards the last remaining major cities not in its control.

This has been part of its efforts to secure what is known as the “fortress belt”.

What is the fortress belt?

The “fortress belt” stretches some 50km (31 miles) along a strategic highway between the towns of Kostiantynivka and Sloviansk.

The fortress belt includes key towns — Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka, Oleksiyevo-Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka – which have remained under the control of Ukrainian troops since 2014 and are of significant strategic importance as logistical and administrative centre.

Attempts by Russian troops to capture Sloviansk and the cities of the fortress belt in 2022-2023 were unsuccessful, and Ukrainian counteroffensives drove the Russian forces far from key positions.

“Ukraine’s fortress belt has served as a major obstacle to the Kremlin’s territorial ambitions in Ukraine over the last 11 years,” the Washington, DC-based think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported on August 8.

Russian advances: What’s the situation on the ground now?

In August, Russian forces made significant gains, advancing about 10km (6 miles) beyond the front lines as they intensified efforts to seize the fortress belt from the southwest, concentrating forces in the Toretsk and eastern Pokrovsk directions.

Al Jazeera military expert Alex Gatapoulous said, “I’m not sure what Ukraine has to offer in terms of territory. Russia has it all and is slowly winning this conflict, albeit at a great cost.

“There is already movement around Pokrovsk in the east, and Konstantinivka is also in danger of encirclement. If Ukraine hasn’t built defensive positions in-depth, Russian forces will have the ability to break out into open country. This is a really dangerous time for Ukraine. They’ve lost all the Russian territory they had taken in Kursk and have little to trade with.”

How has the war progressed over the past three years?

In the war’s early weeks, Russia advanced from the north, east and south, rapidly seizing vast areas of Ukrainian territory, with fierce battles in Irpin, Bucha and Mariupol – the latter of which fell to Russian forces in May 2022. The siege of Mariupol was one of the deadliest and most destructive battles of the war. Ukrainian officials estimated tens of thousands of civilian deaths.

By March 2022, Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest in Europe, and by April of that year, Russia controlled 27 percent of Ukraine.

By late 2022, Ukraine had turned the tide with major counteroffensives in Kharkiv and Kherson, with Kyiv reclaiming 54 percent of the land Russia had captured since the beginning of the war, according to ISW data, reducing Russian-occupied land to just 18 percent of the country.

In August 2024, Ukraine launched a significant incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, marking a notable escalation in the conflict. This offensive saw Ukrainian forces advancing approximately 10km (6 miles) into Russian territory, seizing control over an estimated 250 sq km (96.5 sq miles), all of which has since been retaken by Russia.

By late 2024 and into 2025, the war had settled into a grinding impasse, with both sides suffering heavy losses. However, Russia’s recent incursions, pushing towards Sloviansk, allude to the potential for another offensive to take land it has historically struggled to capture.

What was the pre-war situation?

Prior to Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia had held Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Moscow also supported separatists in the Donbas region, leading to the creation of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. Russia officially recognised these entities on February 21, 2022, and launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine three days later.

The war in Ukraine has resulted in one of the largest and fastest-growing displacement crises in Europe since World War II. According to the UN, approximately 10 million Ukrainians have been displaced, which is about 21 percent of the country’s pre-war population.

Of these, 3.7 million remain internally displaced within Ukraine, while 6.9 million have fled abroad as refugees.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived on Wednesday in Berlin for a virtual summit with European officials and United States President Donald Trump, convened by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

The call was meant to bring European leaders together with Trump before the planned August 15 Alaska meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Those on the call included Merz and the US president, as well as US Vice President JD Vance, Zelenskyy, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, among others.

Here are the key takeaways:

What happened on Wednesday?

The prospect of Trump meeting alone with Putin has left European leaders uneasy. Since the Alaska summit was announced, they have worked to secure Trump’s ear one last time, and on Wednesday, that effort resulted in a series of high-level calls.

About 12:00 GMT, European leaders and NATO members held a video conference with Zelenskyy. Roughly an hour later, Trump and Vice President JD Vance joined the discussion.

Chancellor Merz and President Zelenskyy then delivered joint statements, followed by a separate address from Trump at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

Later in the day, the “Coalition of the Willing”, a group of 31 countries committed to strengthening support for Ukraine against Russian aggression, met in a separate virtual session, issuing a statement.

What were the key takeaways from all these talks?

Here is a breakdown.

EU leaders:

Following the talks with other European leaders and Trump:

• Merz said that European and Ukrainian security interests must be respected at Friday’s Alaska summit. He underlined the importance of Ukraine having a seat at the table in any peace discussions, with a ceasefire as the essential first step.
• “We have made it clear that Ukraine will be at the table as soon as there is a follow-up meeting,” Merz told reporters in Berlin alongside Zelenskyy. “President Trump wants to make a ceasefire a priority,” he added.
• Any territorial exchange in Ukraine “must only be discussed with Ukraine”, French President Macron told reporters in Bregancon, France, following the call.
• “Trump was very clear on the fact that the US wants to obtain a ceasefire at this meeting in Alaska,” Macron said.  “We must continue to support Ukraine, and when I say ‘we’, I mean Europeans and Americans,” he added.

• Ukraine needs credible security guarantees as part of any peace deal, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Starmer said following the virtual summit. The United Kingdom’s support for Ukraine is “unwavering”, he added.

Zelenskyy statements:

• Zelenskyy, during the news conference with Merz, said Putin is “bluffing” about being interested in peace. “Russia is attempting to portray itself as capable of occupying all of Ukraine. That is undoubtedly what they want,” Zelenskyy said.
• The Ukrainian leader also warned that “talks about us, without us, will not work”.
• “Everything concerning Ukraine must be discussed exclusively with Ukraine. We must prepare a trilateral format for talks. There must be a ceasefire,” Zelenskyy added.
• He also said “there must be security guarantees – truly reliable ones”.
• Among the agreed principles, Zelenskyy said, is that Russia must not be allowed to block Ukraine’s path to joining the European Union or NATO, and that peace talks should go hand in hand with maintaining pressure on Russia.

• The Ukrainian leader also emphasised that sanctions should be strengthened if Russia fails to agree to a ceasefire during the Alaska summit. “These are effective principles. It is important that they work,” Zelenskyy added.

Thank you for your support! https://t.co/8GyunlWhwf

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 13, 2025

Trump’s news conference:

Following the call, Trump spoke at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC:

• “We had a very good call. I would rate it a 10, very friendly,” Trump explained. The US leader then went on to discuss potential next steps ahead of Friday’s meeting.
• “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,” he said.
• Trump also mentioned the possibility of a later meeting “between President Putin and President Zelenskyy and myself, if they’d like to have me there”, after the first meeting between him and Putin.
• Trump also said he plans to call Zelenskyy and other European leaders after Friday’s discussions with Putin.
• The US president also said there will be “very severe consequences” for Russia if Putin doesn’t agree to end the war after Friday’s meeting.

• “Do you believe you can convince him to stop targeting civilians in Ukraine?” one journalist asked Trump. “I’ve had that conversation with him,” Trump said.
• “Then I go home and I see that a rocket hit a nursing home or a rocket hit an apartment building and people are laying dead in the street. So I guess the answer to that is no, because I’ve had this conversation,” he added.
• However, he reaffirmed his intention to find a solution: “I want to end the war. It’s Biden’s war, but I want to end it. I’ll be very proud to end this war, along with the five other wars I ended,” he said, without explaining which other conflicts he was referring to. He has claimed credit for ceasefires between India and Pakistan in May and Israel and Iran in June, and helped mediate truce pacts between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. Trump has also repeatedly made it clear that he covets a Nobel Peace Prize and believes he is deserving of one.

The Coalition of the Willing:

The coalition issued a statement outlining four key requirements they believe should form the basis of Friday’s talks.

• They said “meaningful negotiations can only take place in the context of a ceasefire or a lasting and significant cessation of hostilities”.
• Second, if Russia refuses a ceasefire in Alaska, sanctions and other economic measures should be intensified to further strain its war economy.
• Third, “international borders must not be changed by force”.
• Fourth, Ukraine should receive strong security guarantees, with the Coalition of the Willing ready to help, including a reassurance force after hostilities end. “No limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with third countries,” the statement said. And Russia cannot veto Ukraine’s path to EU or NATO membership.

Will the European intervention influence the Alaska summit?

It’s unclear, but analysts say that Wednesday’s calls show how Europe has managed to make sure that Trump can’t ignore the continent.

“Even if certain commitments are given, we don’t know what will happen once Putin and Trump find themselves in a room,” Lucian Kim, a senior analyst for Ukraine with the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera.

“The Europeans have quite a lot of power and even more than they realise themselves,” he said, adding that it was an “achievement” for European leaders to get Trump’s attention, and there is now a difference in tone.

“It was not a given when Trump first got into office that he would listen to the Europeans,” he said. Kim also noted that Europe has used its power and influence to pressure Russia over the war.

“Russia was heavily dependent on Europe, not the United States, and this lack of trade is hurting Russia,” he said. “Also, you have European banks that are holding hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian government assets.”

“Trump has realised that without the Europeans, it will be very hard to reach any solution in Ukraine.”

What has Russia said so far about any peace agreement?

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexey Fadeev told a news conference that Moscow’s position remained unchanged since President Putin outlined it in June 2024.

At the time, Putin had said that a ceasefire would take effect immediately if the Ukrainian government withdrew from four Ukrainian regions partially occupied by Russia – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia. He also insisted that Ukraine must formally abandon its bid to join the NATO military alliance.

Russia currently controls about 19 percent of Ukraine, including the entirety of Crimea and Luhansk, more than 70 percent of Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, as well as small portions of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reiterated that there should be no peace talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war now in its fourth year without representation from his country, and also said Russia should face sanctions if it does not agree to an immediate ceasefire, following a virtual meeting between him, United States President Donald Trump and European leaders.

Zelenskyy delivered the message after the call on Wednesday, two days ahead of a summit between Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska, which comes as part of Washington’s so far failed attempts to end the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Trump promised to hold trilateral talks with both Ukraine and Russia, if Friday’s summit “goes OK”.

“I would like to do it immediately,” he said. “We’ll have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelenskyy and myself if they’d like to have me there.”

The US president also vowed that Moscow would face “severe consequences” if Putin did not agree to end its war.

In a joint statement, leaders of the UK, France and Germany said that Russia should face tougher sanctions if it fails to agree to a ceasefire on Friday.

Kyiv must also be given “robust and credible security guarantees” and have no limitations placed on its armed forces or on its cooperation with other countries, they added.

“The Coalition of the Willing is ready to play an active role, including through plans by those willing to deploy a reassurance force once hostilities have ceased.”

The rapid developments came after Trump met virtually with Zelenskyy and other European leaders including France’s Emmanuel Macron and the United Kingdom’s Keir Starmer on Wednesday.

Arranged in a bid for Europe to try and influence Trump’s meeting with Putin on Friday, this second call took place after talks earlier in the day between Zelenskyy, European leaders and the heads of NATO and the European Union.

Thanking German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for hosting the meetings, Zelenskyy said on X that Ukraine and Europe were “cooperating constructively with the United States”.

“I hope that today we have come closer to ending the war and building a guaranteed peaceful future,” he concluded.

Trump and European leaders called their joint meeting a success, with the US president describing it as a “very good call”.

“I would rate it a 10. Very friendly,” he said, speaking during a press conference at the Kennedy Center.

Trump noted that he would be calling Zelenskyy and European leaders immediately following his meeting with Putin.

At a press conference with Merz, Zelenskyy expressed his hope that the Trump-Putin summit would focus on an “immediate ceasefire”.

“Sanctions must be in place and must be strengthened if Russia does not agree to a ceasefire,” he added.

As the Russian army continues to make sizable territorial gains in the east Ukrainian province of Donetsk, Zelenskyy told the US president and his European colleagues that Putin was “bluffing” about pursuing peace.

His choice of words, a term commonly used in reference to poker, evoked Trump telling Zelenskyy, “you don’t have the cards” in the infamously hostile news conference at the White House on February 28th.

“He is trying to apply pressure before the meeting in Alaska along all parts of the Ukrainian front,” Zelenskyy suggested. “Russia is trying to show that it can occupy all of Ukraine.”

After the Trump call, Merz, who described the meeting as “exceptionally constructive”, stressed that Ukraine is willing to negotiate, but noted that “legal recognition of Russian occupation is not up for debate”.

“The principle that borders cannot be changed by force must continue to apply,” Merz said.

“Negotiations must include robust security guarantees for Kyiv,” he added. “The Ukrainian armed forces must be able and remain able to effectively defend the sovereignty of their country. They must also be able to count on Western aid in the long term.”

After the online meeting, France’s Macron said Trump would be seeking a ceasefire in Ukraine during his meeting with Putin on Friday.

The US president would also seek a trilateral meeting with Putin and Zelenskyy in the future, the French president noted.

The Trump-Putin summit in Alaska has been a cause for anxiety in Kyiv and Europe more widely, after Trump declared that both Ukraine and Russia would have to swap land if a truce is to be reached.

Speaking from the UK on Wednesday, JD Vance, the US vice-president, seemed to try to allay fears in Europe.

“I just talked to him [Trump] right before I came on the stage, and he said very simply that we are going to make it our mission as an administration to bring peace to Europe once again,” Vance said.

Reporting from Berlin, Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen said there was “some optimism” in Europe that Trump had agreed to Wednesday’s meeting.

However, Vaessen noted that European leaders were still “concerned that everything changes as soon as President Trump is in that room with President Putin, who they know is a very keen, a very sharp negotiator”.

Elsewhere, the Russian Foreign Ministry sought to downplay the relevance of Europe’s last-minute diplomatic efforts with Trump, branding them “practically insignificant”.

On the battlefield, Russia has claimed to have captured the villages of Suvorovo and Nikanorovka as its gains in Donetsk continue, with the Ukrainian authorities issuing evacuation orders for around a dozen settlements.

The Kremlin’s forces achieved their largest 24-hour advance in more than a year on Tuesday, according to data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War.

Aug. 13 (UPI) — Ahead of President Donald Trump‘s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, the European Union will have a call with him Wednesday to remind him that he shouldn’t negotiate without Ukraine.

The call on Wednesday, organized by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, will include Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and several European leaders who are friendly with Trump, like Italy Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Zelensky will be in Berlin for the meeting, his office said on Wednesday, and is expected to later brief reporters with Merz.

At the Friday meeting in Alaska, Trump will meet with Putin to try to end the war with Ukraine. But Zelensky hasn’t been invited.

“We cannot accept that territorial issues between Russia and America are discussed or even decided over the heads of Europeans, over the heads of Ukrainians,” Merz said in a TV interview Sunday. “I assume that the American government sees it the same way. That is why there is this close coordination.”

Merz, a center-right politician, has heavily courted Trump since taking office in May. He has tried to impress upon Trump that if the United States were to boldly intervene on behalf of Ukraine, it could drive Putin into a cease-fire and peace talks.

Trump’s recent frustration with Russia’s repeated bombing of Ukraine has made him more receptive to Merz’s pleas. But this week, he told reporters he wanted to see what Putin had on his mind, and if he could broker “a deal,” which could include swaps of land held by Ukraine and Russia.

But peace on bad terms for Putin might encourage him to send troops to another neighbor and threaten Europe.

“It’s really a concern that Putin might feel emboldened,” Anna Sauerbrey, foreign editor for Germany’s Die Zeit newspaper, told The New York Times. “Not to go for Berlin, of course, but to cause some unrest in other Baltic countries, other European countries.”

Europe’s leaders seemed optimistic that Trump will hear their pleas and take Europe’s needs into consideration.

The EU on Tuesday demanded that the Ukrainian people should determine their own future and that no peace deal with Russia could be decided without Ukraine at the table. Hungary disavowed itself from the calls.

Leaders of 26 of 27 European Union nations said in a statement that viable negotiations must be within the framework of a cease-fire or easing of hostilities and warned of the threat the war posed to European and international security.

There appears to be “more of an understanding from the Americans that you can’t just go for land swaps which would somehow give a prize to Russia,” said one European Union official, who was granted anonymity by the Washington Post. But, the official said, “it’s clear that there are sort of discrepancies, and as we’ve seen it in the U.S. system by now, you have one man who will decide.”

Trump told reporters Monday that “It’s not up to me to make a deal,” echoing what Europe is saying, that Ukraine must be part of the negotiations.

“I guess everyone’s afraid Putin will play Trump’s ego again like he has in the past,” said a second European official to the Washington Post. “Who knows, maybe he comes there with another noble-sounding offer or maybe they give [Trump] some state award.”

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Monday that he expected to determine mere moments into his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week whether it would be possible to work out a deal to halt the war in Ukraine.

“At the end of that meeting, probably the first two minutes, I’ll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made,” Trump said at a White House press conference that he called to announce plans for a federal takeover of Washington’s police force to help combat crime.

He said he thought Friday’s sitdown with Putin in Alaska would be “really a feel-out meeting.” Trump added that “it’ll be good, but it might be bad” and predicted he may say, “lots of luck, keep fighting. Or I may say, we can make a deal.”

Putin wants to lock in Russia’s gains since invading Ukraine in February 2022 as Trump presses for a ceasefire that has remained out of reach. Trump’s eagerness to reach a deal has raised fears in Ukraine and Europe about such an agreement favoring Russia, without sufficient input from Ukraine. Trump has alternately harshly criticized both leaders after promising — and so far failing — to swiftly end the conflict.

The Trump-Putin meeting so far isn’t going to include Zelensky

Trump on Monday ducked repeated chances to say that he would push for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to take part in his discussions with Putin, and was especially dismissive of Zelensky and his need to be part of an effort to seek peace.

He said the Ukrainian president had been to “a lot of meetings” without managing to halt a war that Russia started. Trump also noted that Zelensky had been in power for the duration of the war and said “nothing happened” during that time. He contrasted that with Putin, who has wielded power in Russia for decades.

Trump said that, after his meeting with Putin, “The next meeting will be with Zelensky and Putin” but it could also be a meeting with “Putin and Zelensky and me.”

European allies have pushed for Ukraine’s involvement, fearful that discussions could otherwise favor Moscow.

To that point, Trump said he would call Zelensky and European leaders after his discussion with Putin to “tell them what kind of a deal — I’m not going to make a deal. It’s not up to me to make a deal.”

Trump spent the early part of his administration decrying Zelensky, even suggesting he was a dictator because his country has not held elections during the war. Zelensky was hounded out of the Oval Office in February after Trump and Vice President JD Vance suggested he hadn’t been grateful enough for U.S. support.

Trump’s up and down relations with Putin

More recently, Trump has expressed frustration with Putin that Russia hasn’t appeared to take a push for a ceasefire more seriously, and softened his tone toward Zelensky. His comments Monday suggested he might have had another change of heart.

“President Putin invited me to get involved,” Trump said. He noted that he thought it was “very respectful” that Putin is coming to the U.S. for Friday’s meeting, instead of insisting that Trump go to Russia.

“I’d like to see a ceasefire. I’d like to see the best deal that can be made for both parties,” Trump said.

The president repeated that any major agreement could involve land swaps, without elaborating. He had threatened Moscow with more economic sanctions if more isn’t done to work toward a ceasefire, but suggested Monday that, should Friday’s meeting be successful, he could see a day when the U.S. and Russia normalize trade relations.

Putin is expected to be unwavering in his demands to keep all the territory his forces now occupy and to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO, with the long-term aim of returning it to Moscow’s sphere of influence.

Zelensky insists he will never consent to any formal Russian annexation of Ukrainian territory or give up a bid for NATO membership.

Putin believes he has the advantage on the ground as Ukrainian forces struggle to hold back Russian advances along the 600-mile front. On the front lines, few Ukrainian soldiers believe there’s an end in sight to the war.

Europeans will prepare with a virtual meeting on Ukraine this week

With the Europeans and Ukrainians so far not invited to the summit, Germany sought to prepare by inviting Trump, Zelensky, the NATO chief and several other European leaders for a virtual meeting on Wednesday.

The German chancellery said the talks would seek additional ways to pressure Russia and prepare for peace negotiations and “related issues of territorial claims and security.”

Steffen Meyer, spokesperson for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, said the German government “has always emphasized that borders must not be shifted by force” and that Ukraine should decide its own fate “independently and autonomously.”

Earlier, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person and wounded two others in a region some 260 miles east of Moscow.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses intercepted and destroyed a total of 39 Ukrainian drones overnight and Monday morning over several Russian regions as well as over the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Weissert writes for the Associated Press.

A POLICE worker stalked and blackmailed a teenage boy for seven years after meeting him through an online game.

Ryann Moroney, 28, convinced the lad when he was 15 that he was being blackmailed by several Snapchat accounts.

Moroney, who worked on the London Met’s cyber crime unit, asked the boy to send naked selfies to appease his fictitious blackmailers.

He was arrested when his victim went to the police, who found 83 indecent images of him on Moroney’s phone.

Moroney admitted stalking and making indecent images of the most serious kind at Inner London crown court.

Judge Nathaniel Rudolf KC told him he had taken “complete and utter advantage” of his victim in a “sophisticated campaign designed to maximise his fear”.

He jailed Moroney for four years, four months.

1

Boxers Shigetoshi Kotari and Hiromasa Urakawa died following fights on the same card in Tokyo last week.

Japanese boxing officials will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday as the sport in the country faces intense scrutiny following the deaths of two fighters in separate bouts at the same event.

Super featherweight Shigetoshi Kotari and lightweight Hiromasa Urakawa, both 28, fought on the same card at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall on August 2 and died days later following brain surgery.

The Japan Boxing Commission (JBC), gym owners and other boxing officials are under pressure to act and will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday.

They are also expected to have talks about safety next month, local media said.

“We are acutely aware of our responsibility as the manager of the sport,” Tsuyoshi Yasukochi, secretary-general of the JBC, told reporters on Sunday.

“We will take whatever measures we can.”

Japanese media highlighted the risks of fighters dehydrating to lose weight rapidly before weigh-ins.

“Dehydration makes the brain more susceptible to bleeding,” the Asahi Shimbun newspaper said.

That is one of the issues the JBC plans to discuss with trainers.

“They want to hear from gym officials who work closely with the athletes about such items as weight loss methods and pre-bout conditioning, which may be causally related (to deaths),” the Nikkan Sports newspaper said.

In one immediate measure, the commission has decided to reduce all Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation title bouts to 10 rounds from 12.

“The offensive power of Japanese boxing today is tremendous,” Yasukochi was quoted by the Asahi Shimbun as telling reporters.

“We have more and more boxers who are able to start exchanges of fierce blows from the first round. Maybe 12 rounds can be dangerous.”

President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s new government is trying to attract foreign investment as Syria’s economy lies in ruins.

Jordan will host a Jordanian-Syrian-American meeting on Tuesday to discuss ways to support the rebuilding of Syria, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates says, as Damascus seeks investment deals with international companies to revive its war-ravaged economy.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and United States envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack are expected to attend, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s fledgling government has been grappling with the fallout from sectarian violence between Bedouin and Druze fighters in the southern province of Suwayda as well as Israeli strikes on Syrian soldiers and the capital, Damascus.

Syria’s economy remains in tatters after nearly 14 years of war and the ouster of longtime President Bashar al-Assad in December.

Jordan made its announcement after Damascus signed 12 agreements worth $14bn on Wednesday, including a $4bn agreement with Qatar’s UCC Holding to build a new airport and a $2bn deal to establish a subway in Damascus with the national investment corporation of the United Arab Emirates.

The projects “will extend across Syria and represent a qualitative shift in infrastructure and economic life”, Talal al-Hilali, head of the Syrian Investment Authority, said during a ceremony at the presidential palace in Damascus.

He described the agreements as “a turning point” for Syria’s future.

Al-Sharaa and Barrack were both present at the signing ceremony, according to Syria’s official SANA news agency.

The United Nations has put Syria’s post-war reconstruction costs at more than $400bn.

Syria’s new authorities have worked to attract investment for the reconstruction of infrastructure across the country after the US and the European Union lifted sanctions on Syria in the wake of al-Assad’s ouster.

Other major developments on the investment front include the $2bn Damascus Towers project for residential high rises, signed with the Italian-based company UBAKO; a $500m deal for the Baramkeh Towers project, also in Damascus; and another $60m agreement for Baramkeh Mall.

Last month, Saudi Arabia said it would invest about $3bn in real estate and infrastructure projects in Syria.

In May, Damascus signed a $7bn energy deal with a consortium of Qatari, Turkish and US companies as it seeks to revive its crippled power sector.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has staunchly rejected a suggestion by Donald Trump that ‘swapping territory’ could be a way to end Russia’s war on Ukraine. European leaders have reiterated their support for Kyiv ahead of planned talks between the US President and Russia’s Putin.

Aug. 9 (UPI) — U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy and U.S. Vice President JD Vance met with Ukrainian officials and others to discuss ending the war when Russia attacked its neighbor in February 2022.

Ukraine Presidential Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak and Ukraine Defense Secretary Rustem Umerov joined Lammy and Vance on Saturday to discuss matters in Ukraine and its defensive war with Russia.

“The U.K.’s support for Ukraine remains ironclad as we continue working toward a just and lasting peace,” Lammy said Saturday in a post on X.

The meeting occurred at Lammy’s official residence in Kent, England, where Vance is staying with his family through the weekend.

Yermak and Umerov were invited to join Lammy and Vance on short notice and ahead of Friday’s scheduled summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also might join the meeting with Trump and Putin, but he has not been invited as of Saturday evening.

Officials from the European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Italy and NATO also attended Saturday’s meeting at Lammy’s official residence, the BBC reported.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not join the meeting, but he talked with Zelensky by phone before it occurred.

Starmer and Zelensky agreed the meeting at Lammy’s residence is an important prelude to Friday’s scheduled summit in Alaska, Starmer’s office said in a news release.

Zelensky afterward told Ukrainians Putin is the only one standing in the way of ending the war.

“His only card is the ability to kill, and he is trying to sell the cessation of killings at the highest possible price,” Zelensky said during a national address.

He also dismissed the notion of a cease-fire instead of ending the war.

“What is needed is not a pause in the killings but a real, lasting peace,” Zelensky said.

He said Trump supports an immediate cessation of hostilities and said the United States has the “leverage and determination” to make it happen via sanctions against Russia.

Putin “fears sanctions and is doing everything to bail on them,” Zelensky said.

“He wants to exchange a pause in the war, in the killings, for the legalization of the occupation of our land,” Zelensky told Ukrainians.

“We will not allow this second attempt to partition Ukraine.”

Aug. 7 (UPI) — The Kremlin announced Thursday that a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will be held in the coming days, as the American leader has been pushing for trilateral cease-fire talks between Moscow and Kyiv.

Yuri Ushakov, foreign affairs advisor to Putin, made the announcement to reporters, stating a venue has also been decided upon, in principle, for the Trump-Putin summit, but that it will be announced later, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported.

The meeting will mark the first face-to-face conversation between the world leaders since they spoke on the sidelines of a G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, in 2019. The pair also held a summit in Helsinki in 2018.

Since then, their conversations have been via telephone or through envoys.

On Wednesday, Trump said he was working to schedule a trilateral meeting between himself, Putin and President Volodymyr Zelensky to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

His special envoy, Steve Witkoff, had met with Putin on Wednesday, and Trump described their meeting as “highly productive” in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“Great progress made,” the U.S. leader said.

Trump has been seeking a cease-fire since his inauguration in January. During his campaign, the American leader repeatedly said he could end the war within 24 hours of returning to office.

Amid his second term, the United States, once Ukraine’s most ardent supporter, drastically shifted its policies, stating Kyiv would have to give up land to Russia in a cease-fire while pulling back on its military commitments to the besieged ally, demanding that others, especially Europe, it’s largest backer, due more.

However, Trump’s tone has changed slightly as the war has dragged on, and he has begun to direct his ire at Putin for the lack of a cease-fire agreement. Early last month, he lifted a pause he had placed on U.S. military aid transfers to Ukraine.

The announcement of the agreement comes a day after The New York Times reported that Trump intends to meet with Putin next week, followed by a meeting with him, Putin and Zelensky sometime after that.

Zelensky has been vocal about his willingness for cease-fire talks, and early Thursday said on X that a meeting between the world leaders “can lead to a truly lasting peace.”

“We in Ukraine have repeatedly said that finding real solutions can be truly effective at the level of leaders,” he said in the statement.

“Ukraine has never wanted war and will work toward peace as productively as possible. The main thing is for Russia, which started this war, to take real steps to end its aggression.”

The war between Ukraine and Russia began with a Kremlin invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. Russia also annexed Crimea in February 2014.

Aug. 6 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said he will work to schedule a trilateral meeting soon with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to end the war in Ukraine.

Trump announced his intent to meet with the leaders of the warring nations as early as next week after special Envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin on Wednesday.

“Steve Witkoff just had a highly productive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “Great progress was made.”

Witkoff and Putin met ahead of Friday’s Trump-imposed deadline for a cease-fire in Ukraine.

Trump said he apprised some of the nation’s allies in Europe of the meeting’s content.

“Everyone agrees this war must come to a close,” he said, “and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come.”

The president also said he would meet with Putin as early as next week and afterward wants to meet with Putin and Zelensky at the same time, The New York Times reported.

Trump and Zelensky spoke by phone after the Witkoff-Putin meeting and said “it seems Russia is more inclined toward [a] cease-fire,” as reported by CNN.

Putin called the meeting “constructive and useful,” Russian state media outlet TASS reported.

“Putin conveyed some signals to the United States on the Ukrainian issue,” the Kremlin told state-controlled RIA Novosti.

Witkoff and Putin met for about three hours after Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on nations that buy oil from Russia if a cease-fire isn’t declared by Friday.

He also announced a 25% tariff on India for buying and reselling “massive amounts of Russian oil” and intends to increase the tariff to 50% in three weeks, The Washington Post reported.

Trump says such trade with Russia funds its war against Ukraine, which Russia started on Feb. 24, 2022.