A White House official said Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump will take part in a virtual meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders on Wednesday, as he prepares to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
The official confirmed Trump's participation in Wednesday's meeting on condition of anonymity, a day after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced he had invited the U.S. president, Zelenskyy and other European officials. The meeting will come just two days before Trump sits down with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said Wednesday's virtual meeting will focus on "further options to exert pressure on Russia" and "preparations for possible peace negotiations and related questions regarding territorial claims and security guarantees."
The summit will feature multiple discussion formats with participation from the heads of state and government of Germany, Finland, France, Italy, Poland, the U.K. and Ukraine. The president of the European Commission, head of the European Council, NATO secretary general, and U.S. vice president are also expected to join the talks.
The White House earlier on Tuesday tempered expectations for this week's summit between Trump and Putin, describing the upcoming meeting as a "listening exercise" for the American leader.
Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the summit will be held in Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, on Friday when the president will set the "goal" of being able to "walk away with a better understanding of how we can end this war."
"Only one party that's involved in this war is going to be present, and so this is for the president to go and to get a more firm and better understanding of how we can hopefully bring this war to an end," she told reporters at the White House.
Leavitt was alluding to the fact that Zelenskyy will not be in attendance during the meeting. She emphasized that the sit-down is taking place at Putin's request.
The forthcoming talks will be the first face-to-face meeting between sitting Russian and US presidents since June 2021, when Putin met then-U.S. President Joe Biden in Geneva, Switzerland. It will also mark the first time a Russian president sets foot on Alaskan soil since the Russian Empire sold the territory to the U.S. in 1867.
