Trump and Putin arrive for pivotal Alaska summit that could reshape Ukraine war
Uniformed military members stood at attention nearby.
B-2s and F-22s — military aircraft designed to oppose Russia during the Cold War — were flying over to mark the moment.
Mr Trump and Mr Putin have shared closely watched handshakes before, but their latest one will be as scrutinised as any, as will their body language or hints about how each is feeling.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the previously planned one-on-one meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Putin is now a three-on-three meeting that will include US secretary of state Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff.
The change indicates that the White House is taking a more guarded approach than it did during a 2018 meeting in Helsinki, when Mr Trump and Mr Putin first met privately just with their interpreters for two hours.
The Kremlin says the summit will also include the two delegations meeting and talks continuing over lunch.
The pair are expected to hold a joint press conference.
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Metro
5 minutes ago
- Metro
Donald Trump boasts he's ended 'six wars in six months' but has he?
Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed to have ended 'six wars in six months' ahead of a crunch meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky. The US President insists he has already averted a nuclear apocalypse and now only has the 'complex' Russia-Ukraine war left in his sights as he makes a bold bid for a Nobel Peace prize. The Metro takes a look to see if Trump's claim that he is an international peacekeeper worthy of following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela and long-term rival Barack Obama. 'I've settled 6 Wars in 6 months, one of them a possible Nuclear disaster, and yet I have to read & listen to the Wall Street Journal, and many other who truly don't have a clue, tell me everything that I am doing wrong on the Russia/Ukraine MESS, that is Sleepy Joe Biden's war, not mine. I'm only here to stop it, not to prosecute it any further', Trump wrote in a bragadocious post on Truth Social. 'It would have NEVER happened if I was President. I know exactly what I'm doing, and I don't need the advice of people who have been working on all of these conflicts for years, and were never able to do a thing to stop them. They are 'STUPID' people, with no common sense, intelligence, or understanding, and they only make the current Russia/Ukraine disaster more difficult to FIX. Despite all of my lightweight and very jealous critics, I'll get it done — I always do!!!' Donald Trump boasted he ended the standoff between India and Pakistan which has been running since the countries were divided along religious lines by the British in 1947. India launched military strikes under Operation Sindoor on May 7, in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which terrorists killed 26 people, mostly civilians. Trump has claimed he was the one who stopped the conflict by offering trade deals between the two nations before it could escalate into a full-blown war. Pakistan hailed Trump's role and even backed the president's calls for a Nobel Peace prize. But India later revealed there was no call between Prime Minister Modi and Trump from the 22nd of April when Trump called up to convey his sympathy and the 17th of June, when he called up Prime Minister [Modi] in Canada to explain why he could not meet him. While Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for the ceasefire India has maintained that the halt in military action on May 10 was a result of direct contact between both nations. 'This contact was initiated by the Pakistani side,' India has said. In June, Trump intervened in the Iran-Israel conflict by ordering US strikes on three key Iranian nuclear facilities, bringing the Middle East to the brink of a new regional war. He then announced there had been a ceasefire. But the truce faltered when Israel accused Iran of launching missiles into its airspace after the ceasefire was supposed to take effect and vowed to retaliate. Iran's military denied firing on Israel, yet explosions boomed and sirens sounded across northern Israel and an official said two Iranian missiles were intercepted. Trump's frustration was palpable as he spoke to reporters, using an expletive to hammer home his point. 'I'm not happy with them. I'm not happy with Iran, either, but I'm really unhappy with Israel going out this morning,' Trump said. 'We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the f—- they're doing.' On Monday, he told reporters that he had ended Iran's nuclear capability. Under pressure from Trump, who threatened to delay crucial trade talks, the two Asian countries agreed to a ceasefire on July 28. The recent fighting was triggered by a land mine explosion in disputed land along the border that wounded five Thai soldiers. That came just a week after a similar incident. 'It means that we only want to live side-by-side with Thailand as a good neighbor, living with unity and peace with each other,' Khem Sorn, the chief monk for Phnom Penh said. It was the latest eruption of hostilities in a decades-old dispute over ownership of several small pockets of territory along the 800-kilometer (500-mile) land border. A ceasefire that took effect on July 29 ended major fighting, though both sides have alleged violations of the truce and the underlying dispute over territorial claims has not been resolved. The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan shook hands at a White House peace summit before signing an agreement aimed at ending decades of conflict. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan centres on the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but has a majority Armenian population. This dispute has led to multiple wars and periods of intense conflict, most recently in 2020. Trump was in the middle as Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan flanked him on either side at a meeting in the White House. As the two extended their arms in front of Trump to shake hands, the president reached up and clasped his hands around theirs. Trump said Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev would also be signing agreements with the US to 'pursue Economic opportunities together, so we can fully unlock the potential of the South Caucasus Region.' 'Many Leaders have tried to end the War, with no success, until now, thanks to 'TRUMP,'' Trump wrote on his Truth Social site. Foreign policy experts said Trump deserves some credit for recent peace agreements in several conflicts. But Trump has struggled to made headway on the world's two most vexing conflicts: the Russia-Ukraine war and Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza. Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff said last month that the US was bringing home its negotiating team from Qatar to assess its next steps. Witkoff said the move was made because Hamas was not showing 'good faith' toward reaching a ceasefire. No major breakthroughs have occurred despite weeks of talks in Qatar, along with a visit to the White House by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Witkoff said the U.S. would 'consider alternative options to bring the hostages home,' but officials did not answer questions about what those options could include. President Donald Trump appeared to endorse Israel's plan to take control of Hamas's last strongholds in the Gaza Strip on August 18, writing on Truth Social: 'We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!! The sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be.' Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump expressed hope that Monday's critical talks with Ukrainian and European leaders at the White House could lead to trilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring an end to Russia's war on Ukraine. 'They want to give protection and they feel very strongly about it and we'll help them out with that,' Trump said. 'I think its very important to get the deal done.' Monday's hastily assembled meeting comes after Trump met on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has said that the onus is now on Zelensky to agree to concessions that he said could end the war. 'If everything works out today, we'll have a trilat,' Trump said, referring to possible three-way talks among Zelenskyy, Putin and Trump. 'We're going to work with Russia, we're going to work with Ukraine.' He said: 'All of us would obviously prefer an immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace. More Trending 'And maybe something like that could happen as of this moment it's not happening, but president Zelensky and president Putin can talk a little bit more about that. 'You know, in the six or so wars that we stopped, we haven't had a cease fire. You can do it through the war, but I like the ceasefire because you immediately stop the killing. 'But I believe a peace agreement at the end of all of this is something that's very attainable, and it can be done in the near future, with all of the wars that I got involved in, we only have this one left. 'Of course, as soon as I walk out the door, there'll probably be a new one starting, and I'll get that stopped too. But I thought this was going to be one of the easier ones. It's actually one of the most difficult. They're very complex.' MORE: Zelensky tells Trump 'it's the best I had' after turning up in black suit with no tie MORE: Russian troops troll Zelensky by flying US flag on mission into Ukraine MORE: From elite Oligarchs to cringeworthy fashion – readers discuss the Alaska summit
The Independent
5 minutes ago
- The Independent
This was worse than the last time Trump met Zelensky. It was also deeply weird
After Friday's red carpet love-in with Russian president Vladimir Putin, President Trump sat down with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky today at the Oval Office to talk peace and the world hoped it would go better than the last White House meeting between the U.S. and Ukraine. Before meeting with Zelensky, or any other world leaders in town for the event, Trump was already telling reporters that peace could come 'almost immediately' if Zelensky ditched NATO and gifted Putin Crimea - the diplomatic equivalent of telling someone to end a mugging by handing over their wallet and the deed to their house. Zelensky, of course, is a man in the awkward position of being the democratically elected leader of the country Trump's friend is currently trying to dismantle. And the body language of today's meeting told its own story: gone were the grinning asides and admiring jokes, replaced with the brittle civility of a man forced to pose with the victim while still swooning over the perpetrator. Zelensky, perched on the edge of his seat while Trump leaned back, opened by thanking Trump for arranging the meeting. Inevitably, he wore a suit rather than his signature military fatigues. Anyone who witnessed the horror of their last Oval Office encounter will recall how he was repeatedly chided by the president, J.D. Vance and far-right reporter Brian Glenn for not 'suiting up.' Zelensky was also criticized for not being 'grateful' enough — which explains why today he began by thanking Trump for arranging the meeting. Luckily for Zelensky and unluckily for the rest of us, it became clear that Trump wasn't going to do a repeat performance of February's attack — because he had other things on his mind anyway. Questions from the gathered media were direct: 'Is today's meeting 'deal or no deal?'' asked one. Trump equivocated. 'I can never say that.' What could he say, then? Well, it soon became unfortunately apparent. 'This isn't my war, this is Joe Biden's war. He's the one who —' There was a pause, where it seemed like the president was genuinely about to suggest that Biden started the war in Ukraine himself, before he ended up at '—had a lot to do with that happening.' No mention of Putin, of course. I mean, why would there be? And then it went on. And on, and on, and on. Asked directly about what was happening in Ukraine, Trump would wheel out an irritated, detail-free 'We're going to have lasting peace,' before going right back to his own agenda. 'I used to get great publicity. Now I get the worst publicity that anyone's ever had in office,' he said, after an unconnected question. Moments later, apropos nothing: 'Joe Biden's a very corrupt politician — not a smart man, by the way. Go back 40 years and he wasn't smart then, either.' This tirade continued for a while, took a left turn into how the 2020 election was supposedly stolen from him, and ended with a Biden jab: 'He was a horrible, corrupt president!' Zelensky had only minutes to talk about a one-and-a-half-year-old child who had just been killed in Kharkiv by Russian missiles. And Trump went right back to carrying on. Trump wants to end 'corrupt' mail-in ballots and 'the machines' (never mind the defamation lawsuits already lost by right-wing media spreading conspiracy theories about voting machines giving inaccurate results.) Mail-in voting is 'a fraud' and 'the Democrats want it because it's the only way they get elected.' By the way, they also want 'transgender for everybody.' And 'they love crime'. Zelensky was, at this point, shifting a little uncomfortably in his chair. Utterly nonplussed, Trump continued. His freewheeling narrative alighted, for a second, on immigration: 'In 90 days, not one person came in illegally to our country. Even I find that hard to believe!' And some more stuff about how the Democrats had let the southern border get out of control. A final question, attempting to get the president back onto a topic even remotely related to the Ukrainian leader seated opposite him, ended up with: 'I love the Ukrainian people but I love all people. I love Russian people. I love them all.' The stand-out moment was probably when Zelensky responded to a reporter's question about why elections are difficult to arrange during active wartime, in terms of logistics. Having taken a while to explain how much extra security is needed, he then added that democratic elections in Ukraine would soon be arranged. And with a laugh, Trump said, ''So you're saying if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections?' For any other politician, this might mark somewhat of a career low point. But of course today, under the Trump administration, it was just Monday. And so, somehow, Biden — who isn't even in the room, who hasn't been for months — became the central villain of the narrative, eclipsing both Putin and the ongoing missile strikes killing civilians. It's a remarkable inversion: the man praising the aggressor, lecturing the victim and saving his deepest rage for his domestic rival. If you want to know what obsessions animate Trump's foreign policy, don't look to maps of Ukraine; look to the 2020 election. I'll admit to believing that it couldn't get worse than the school bully-style treatment of Zelensky last time he visited Washington, but this was worse. To listen to this press conference, you'd think Biden really was the one rolling tanks into Donetsk. A grievance recital that used the background of war for the foreground of Trump's hurt feelings is so much less than what the world deserves. We all saw the red carpet on Friday, the festival-style 'ALASKA 2026' and the photo-ops. We all saw the apathy today. Civilians die in Kharkiv, Europe flies in en masse to prop up Ukraine and Trump still finds a way to make the story about his ratings, his stolen thunder, his petty personal rants. If Friday was Broadway-style theater, today was a tragicomedy. And somehow, in the midst of war and mourning, the only thing that got center stage was Trump's ego.
The Independent
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