High-stakes summit with Putin over Ukraine war tops Trump’s agenda this week

President Donald Trump’s week will culminate in a high-stakes summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, where the two leaders are expected to discuss the war in Ukraine and the broader state of U.S.–Russia relations on the global stage.

The summit, scheduled for Friday, has drawn international scrutiny amid concerns that Washington and Moscow could attempt to broker terms for ending the conflict without formally involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, leaving him only a tacit role in negotiations.

ZELENSKYY THANKS NATO, EUROPEAN LEADERS FOR BACKING HIS PUSH TO JOIN TRUMP‑PUTIN SUMMIT

Trump has previously said that Putin and Zelenskyy were close to a ceasefire deal but signaled that war-weary Kyiv would have to concede significant territory, an outcome that Ukrainians and many European allies oppose.

Russian forces currently occupy approximately one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory—stretching from the Russian border to Crimea—including regions vital to the country’s economy, rich in minerals, industry, and home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.

Views of the aftermath of a Russian airstrike with an S-300 missile in Svyatogorsk, Ukraine, on June 18, 2025.  (Jose Colon/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Both the White House and the Kremlin have acknowledged Zelenskyy’s request to join the talks, though no formal invitation has been extended to the Ukrainian leader. If granted a seat at the table, it would mark the first face-to-face meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.

The summit comes as Russia’s war grinds into its third year and fifth month, with Moscow showing little sign of abandoning its efforts to erode Ukraine’s sovereignty and reassert the territorial influence of the former Soviet empire.

PUTIN ALLY WARNS ‘TITANIC EFFORTS’ ARE UNDERWAY TO SINK TRUMP SUMMIT OVER UKRAINE WAR

The Kremlin said in a statement on Saturday that Trump and Putin are expected to “focus on discussing options for achieving a long-term peaceful resolution” in Ukraine. “This will evidently be a challenging process, but we will engage in it actively and energetically,” the statement added.

‘The US has the power to force Russia to negotiate seriously’

S President Donald Trump (R) meets Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) on the first day of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan on June 28, 2019 (Kremlin Press Office / Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Over the weekend, several European leaders voiced support for Zelenskyy’s push to attend this week’s summit, amid growing concerns that Kyiv’s long-term security could be negotiated without its direct involvement.

The leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Finland and the European Commission said in a joint statement that any diplomatic solution brokered between Trump and Putin must uphold the security interests of both Ukraine and Europe.

ZELENSKYY WON’T CEDE TERRITORY FOR PEACE DEAL AHEAD OF TRUMP‑PUTIN SUMMIT

“The U.S. has the power to force Russia to negotiate seriously,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told Reuters on Sunday. “Any deal between the U.S. and Russia must have Ukraine and the EU included, for it is a matter of Ukraine’s and the whole of Europe’s security,” she added.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also voiced support for Zelenskyy’s attendance at the meeting and called the summit an opportunity to measure how serious Putin is about “bringing this terrible war to an end.” 

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Zelenskyy thanked European leaders for their support and said that “the end of the war must be fair.”

“I am grateful to everyone who stands with Ukraine and our people today for the sake of peace in Ukraine, which is defending the vital security interests of our European nations,” he said.