“The president is agreeing to this meeting, at the request of President Putin,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday. “And the goal of this meeting for the president is to walk away with a better understanding of how we can end this war.”
Leavitt added that a face-to-face discussion was considered more valuable than a phone call. “I think the president of the United States getting in the room with the president of Russia, sitting face-to-face rather than speaking over the telephone will give this president the best indication of how to end this war and where this is headed,” she said.
Zelenskyy has maintained that any agreement excluding Ukraine will be ineffective. “Any decisions made against us, any decisions made without Ukraine — they are simultaneously decisions against peace,” he said in a Saturday statement. “These are dead decisions; they will never work. And what we all need is a real, living peace, one that people will respect.”
Several European leaders have backed Ukraine’s position, stating that “the path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine.”
Trump told reporters Monday that he expected to know “within minutes” whether Putin was serious about pursuing a deal. He also acknowledged that negotiations could involve “land swapping” as part of an agreement.
The US president said he would consult with Zelenskyy and European leaders after the meeting. “If it’s a fair deal, I will reveal it to the European Union leaders and the NATO leaders and also to President Zelenskyy,” Trump said. “I may say, ‘lots of luck, keep fighting,’ or I may say we can make a deal.”
Asked whether the meeting would result in a peace agreement or simply gauge the possibility of one, Leavitt said, “I think both can be true, right? The president has always said he wants a peace deal. He wants to see this war come to an end. But this bilateral meeting is a bilateral meeting between one party in this two party war. Right. You need both countries to agree to a deal. The president is accepting this bilateral meeting with Putin on Friday, and I will let him speak further to it after it concludes about how he felt it went.”
Trump and Putin are scheduled to meet in Anchorage, Alaska, despite earlier comments from Trump suggesting the talks would be held in Russia. “There were many sites discussed, but of course, Alaska is a state within the United States of America,” Leavitt said. “So the president is very honoured and looks forward to hosting President Putin on American soil.”
