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.
‘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 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.
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