US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, August 13, said he would seek a three-way meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately after his upcoming Alaska summit with Putin — part of his push to end the three-year war in Ukraine.
Trump spoke after what he described as a “very good” call with European leaders, including Zelensky, even as Russian forces made their largest advance into Ukraine in over a year.
If the first one goes okay, we’ll have a quick second one,” Trump told reporters, referring to Friday’s planned face-to-face with Putin in Anchorage. “I would like to do it almost immediately — a quick second meeting between President Putin, President Zelensky, and myself, if they’d like to have me there.”
The high-stakes summit comes as Trump struggles to deliver on his campaign pledge to end the conflict, with Zelensky and European allies urging him to push for a ceasefire. However, fears are growing that Trump and Putin could strike a deal forcing painful concessions from Ukraine, especially since Zelensky was not invited to the Anchorage talks.
