President Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and leaders of numerous NATO countries held virtual meetings Wednesday ahead of Friday’s scheduled summit in Alaska between Mr. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mr. Trump joined in a call from the White House. In a social media post ahead of the meeting, he wrote: “Will be speaking to European Leaders in a short while. They are great people who want to see a deal done.”
The president on Wednesday said he hopes there will be a second meeting after the Alaska meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, but that will depend on how Friday’s sitdown goes. Asked by a reporter at an event at the Kennedy Center whether there will be consequences for Putin if he doesn’t agree to stop the war after the Friday meeting, Mr. Trump said, “There will be very severe consequences.” But he declined to elaborate.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz convened the series of virtual meetings in an attempt to have the voice of European and Ukrainian leaders heard ahead of the Alaska summit, which they’ve been sidelined from.
Zelenskyy joined Merz in Berlin, and they met with European leaders earlier Wednesday in preparation for the virtual call with Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance about an hour later.
“U.S. President Trump will start discussions with President Putin in Alaska about bringing the war to an end, and important decisions could be reached,” Merz, standing alongside Zelenskyy, told journalists in a press conference after meeting with Mr. Trump. “We as Europeans are doing everything we can to help set the agenda for that meeting. We’re hoping that Donald Trump has success in that meeting in Anchorage.”
Merz said that he and Zelenskyy had spoken with Mr. Trump together.
“In Alaska, security interests of Europe and Ukraine must be protected. That is part of what we discussed with President Trump. We were together on the conditions of this meeting and the goals of this meeting on Friday,” Merz said.
The German leader said Ukraine would need a seat at the table if peace was to be reached in Ukraine, and that he told Mr. Trump he would speak to him after his Alaska meeting with Putin.
“We want to make sure that the right chronology happens: that there is a ceasefire and that there is an agreement that is discussed after that,” he said. “A legal recognition of Russian ownership of this territory cannot happen. There have to be robust security guarantees. The sovereignty of Ukraine has to be respected. Negotiations have to be part of a larger transatlantic strategy, and has to be part of necessary pressure on Russia.”
Merz added, “If there is no movement on the Russian side, we and the U.S. have to put more pressure on Russia. President Trump knows this position and largely agrees with it, and we had a good conversation with each other.”
“Everything … needs to be discussed with Ukraine”
Zelenskyy thanked Merz and said “everything regarding Ukraine needs to be discussed with Ukraine. We have to be part of this conversation.” He said Ukraine, before anything else, needed a ceasefire and security guarantees.
“President Trump has supported us today, and the U.S. is ready to support us,” he said.
Zelenskyy also said he had told Mr. Trump and the European leaders that “Putin is bluffing,” and that “Putin doesn’t want peace. He wants to occupy our country, and we understand it. Putin cannot fool us. We need to pressure him. Sanctions not only from the U.S., but from the European Union. Together our union of partners can really, really stop Putin’s war.”
He urged allies to keep up sanctions on Moscow, saying, “Sanctions and increasing sanctions on Russia if they are not agreeing to a ceasefire — this is very effective and they are working.”
Regarding Friday’s meeting in Alaska, Zelenskyy said he had discussed his priorities with Mr. Trump.
“We really hope that the immediate ceasefire will be one main issue during this meeting,” Zelenskyy said. “President Trump was talking about it. Then he suggested that he will contact me immediately after his Alaska meeting. He will tell me about all results, if there are any results, and then we will discuss our steps together.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Merz pledged to help Ukraine develop its own long-range missile systems that would be free of any Western-imposed limitations on their use and targets as the Kyiv government fights to repel Russia’s invasion.
Mr. Trump has said he wants to see whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is serious about ending the war, now in its fourth year, describing Friday’s summit as “a feel-out meeting” where he can assess the Russian leader’s intentions.
Yet Mr. Trump has disappointed allies in Europe by saying Ukraine will have to give up some Russian-held territory. He has also said Russia must accept land swaps, although it was unclear what Putin might be expected to surrender.
European allies have pushed for Ukraine’s involvement in any peace talks, fearful that discussions that exclude Kyiv could otherwise favor Moscow.
Mr. Trump on Monday ducked repeated chances to say that he would push for Zelenskyy to take part in his discussions with Putin, and was dismissive of Zelenskyy and his need to be part of an effort to seek peace. Mr. Trump said that following Friday’s summit, a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders could be arranged, or that it could also be a meeting with “Putin and Zelenskyy and me.”
Zelenskyy warned that “talks about us, without us, will not work.”
Ukrainian and European concerns
The Europeans and Ukraine are wary that Putin, who has waged the biggest land war in Europe since 1945 and used Russia’s energy might to try to intimidate the European Union, might secure favorable concessions and set the outlines of a peace deal without them.
The overarching fear of many European countries is that Putin will set his sights on one of them next if he wins in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from the remaining 30% of the Donetsk region that it still controls as part of a ceasefire deal, a proposal the leader categorically rejected.
Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine would not give up any territory it controls, saying that would be unconstitutional and would serve only as a springboard for a future Russian invasion.
He said diplomatic discussions led by the U.S. focusing on ending the war have not addressed key Ukrainian demands, including security guarantees to prevent future Russian aggression and including Europe in negotiations and rehabilitate Putin.
General Sir Richard Shirreff, former NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told CBS News partner network BBC News he didn’t believe Friday’s meeting between Mr. Trump and Putin could lead to an end of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“Russia has to recognize and Putin has to recognize that Zelenskyy is president of Ukraine, recognize the Ukrainian constitution and Ukraine’s right to exist as a sovereign state. And that is only going to happen … when Russia gets a really bloody nose. And for that to happen, we need to see some proper strategic thinking from NATO – from the president of the United States – that recognizes that this is about transatlantic security.”
Shirreff said an end to the war would require Ukraine becoming a member of NATO.
“Even if Putin moves on or falls under a bus, we’re probably likely to get somebody in place just as hard-line, just as ultra-nationalistic, and just as determined to press on (with Russia’s takeover of Ukraine),” Shirreff said. “So I think we have to recognize that European security means deterrence – a band of deterrent steel, as I’ve said many times – from the Baltic to the Black Sea, with Ukraine as a NATO member. Now, however far-fetched that may seem from where we are at the moment, that’s the reality. … Any sort of compromise now, any so-called freezing of conflict, is only going to continue to postpone it.”
Trump-Putin summit to take place on Alaskan military base
The summit between Mr. Trump and Putin will be the first in-person meeting between Putin and a sitting U.S. president since Russia invaded Ukraine more than three years ago.
The meeting will take place at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, on the northern edge of Anchorage, a senior White House official told CBS News Tuesday. Given that it is peak tourist season in Alaska, there were few viable options to host the talks. Possible venues for the high-stakes meeting also needed to meet security requirements.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters earlier Tuesday that the mechanics of the meeting were “still being ironed out.”
Leavitt described the meeting as “a listening exercise for the president.”
“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, again, a more firm and better understanding of how we can hopefully bring this war to an end,” Leavitt said.
“Trump has obviously not been listening at all because it’s very clear — and Putin continues to make it clear — what his demands are, and he’s not stepped back one iota from his maximalist demands,” former NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe Shirreff said. “And those, as we’ve heard, are simply impossible for Ukraine to accept without capitulation.”
Asked Wednesday at the Kennedy Center if he believes he can convince Putin to stop targeting Ukrainian civilians, Mr. Trump said no.
“Well, I’ll tell you what,” Mr. Trump responded. “I’ve had that conversation with him. I’ve had a lot of good conversations with him. Then I go home and I see that a rocket hit a nursing home or a rocket hit an apartment building and people are laying dead in the streets. So I guess the answer to that is no, because I’ve had this conversation.”
Speaking to reporters in the White House briefing room Monday, Mr. Trump expressed optimism that his meeting with Putin will be “constructive,” and said that he is planning to establish an in-person meeting involving Putin and Zelenskyy.
“The next meeting will be with Zelenskyy and Putin or Zelenskyy and Putin and me,” Mr. Trump said.
John Dickerson will anchor live coverage from Anchorage alongside Margaret Brennan on CBS News 24/7 and the “CBS Evening News” Friday.
Haley Ott
contributed to this report.
