President Trump is limiting expectations for his summit in Alaska Friday with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, maintaining that a future three-way meeting involving President Volodymyr Zelensky will be key to ending the war in Ukraine.
Russian media is also downplaying the importance of cease-fire talks, stressing that the Kremlin has several other issues it hopes to discuss with the American president.
Mr. Trump, who famously promised to end the Ukraine war on “day one” of his second administration, has expressed a deep sense of frustration with Mr. Putin in recent weeks. Although Mr. Zelensky himself appeared to be in hot water with the president following an Oval Office spat earlier this year, Mr. Trump has pressed Mr. Putin to stop his bombing campaign in Ukraine.
“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social in May, after Mr. Putin spent a weekend sending hundreds of drones to attack Ukrainian targets.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, however, Mr. Trump said he believes both Russia and Ukraine are prepared to end the conflict and the killing of thousands of soldiers on both sides.
“We’re gonna see what happens with our meeting. We have a big meeting and it’s gonna be … very important for Russia and it’s gonna be very important for us, and important for us only in that we’re gonna save a lot of lives,” Mr. Trump said when asked if he would make certain concessions to the Russians.
“What I’m really doing this for is to save thousands of soldiers,” he said. “You have Russian soldiers, you have Ukrainian soldiers, and then you’ll have missiles dropped into various cities and towns in Ukraine.”
Mr. Trump downplayed the importance of this initial summit, which will mark the first time since 2019 that the two men have met face-to-face. The president said the primary goal is to set the stage for a future meeting involving himself and Messrs. Putin and Zelensky.
“I think it’s gonna be a good meeting, but the more important meeting will be the second meeting that we’re having. We’re gonna have a meeting with President Putin, President Zelensky, myself, and maybe we’ll bring some of the European leaders along,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re gonna see what happens, and I think President Putin will make peace.”
The Kremlin is expressing a similar sense of cautious optimism. According to Russian state press, Mr. Putin’s top advisers are telling reporters that the Russian leader may want to discuss more than just an end to the war in Ukraine.
“Given that there will be a joint news conference, the president will outline the range of agreements and understandings that can be achieved,” Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said, according to the state press outlet TASS. He warned reporters that no one should try to predict what will come of the Alaska summit, saying that they will “see how the conversation unfolds.”
The White House said Thursday that Messrs. Trump and Putin will initially meet alone, accompanied only by interpreters. Following a working breakfast, they will reconvene with several top aides in each delegation. The summit will conclude with a joint press conference sometime Friday afternoon, local time.
According to TASS, the aides who will accompany Mr. Putin include the foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov; the defense minister, Andrey Belousov, and the finance minister, Anton Siluanov. The White House has not publicly named members of its delegation.
“Naturally, broader tasks on ensuring peace and security as well as the most pertinent and pressing international and regional issues will be touched upon,” a top foreign policy aide to Mr. Putin, Yury Ushakov, told TASS. “I will note that this cooperation has an enormous and, unfortunately, as yet untapped potential.”
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