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US President Donald Trump ahead of his summit with Vladimir Putin is pushing for a second meeting including their Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky – testing if the warring leaders can ‘get along’.
Trump said on the eve of his high-profile one-on-one with Putin in Alaska on Friday that he believes a trilateral meeting will be required to reach a deal to end the war.
‘I think President Putin will make peace, I think President Zelenskiy will make peace,’ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday.
‘We’ll see if they get along.’
In raising the importance of another meeting, Trump seemed to be lowering the expectation that a ceasefire would emerge from the summit with Putin, to which Zelensky was not invited.
‘I think it’s going to be a good meeting, but the more important meeting will be the second meeting that we’re having,’ Trump said.
‘We’re going to have a meeting with President Putin, President Zelenskiy, myself, and maybe we’ll bring some of the European leaders along. Maybe not.
‘I don’t know that that it’s going to be very important. We’re going to see what happens.’
Hours earlier, a Russian plane carrying a delegation from the European country for the meeting landed at Anchorage International Airport, according to Flightradar24. The aircraft operated by the Special Flight Squadron has previously carried high-ranking officials on diplomatic assignments.
The summit is set to unfold at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage starting at 11.30am local time (19.30 GMT). The agenda includes a one-on-one conversation between Trump and Putin with interpreters present, a business lunch, and a joint press conference.
Trump was also asked by reporters if he would back reducing the NATO troops presence in Europe to encourage Russia to agree to a deal.
‘That hasn’t been put before me,’ he said.
‘I’ll think about that for later, but it has not been put before me.’
Putin on Thursday praised the Trump administration’s work toward ending the war in Ukraine.
‘The current American administration… is making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict,’ he stated.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt earlier this week said Zelensky was not included in the Alaska summit because it is being held ‘at the request of president Putin’.
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