President Trump and President Putin joint conference on summit discussion
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KVIA) - President Donald J. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for a high-stakes summit in Anchorage, Alaska Friday to discuss a cease-fire in the Russia-Ukraine war.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not in attendance. Trump said he hopes the summit talks lead to a meeting that will include Zelenskyy.
Originally planned as a one-on-one meeting between the two presidents, Joint Chiefs Chairman, General Dan Caine joined the two leaders. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House special envoy Steve Witkoff joined Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov in the meeting room.
The goal of the summit is reaching an agreement between Ukraine and Russia on ending the war which has been ongoing for more than three years. Nearly 14,000 Ukrainian civilians have died since Russia launched a full scale invasion into Ukraine, according to United Nations reports.
“He is definitely not preparing for a ceasefire or an end to the war. Putin is determined only to present a meeting with America as his personal victory,” President Zelensky said earlier this week.
The meeting is also an opportunity for Russia to restart economic discussion with the United States.
A Kremlin negotiator said, "We understand that unless there is major progress on Ukraine and diplomatic efforts succeed, then economic cooperation will take a while to be relaunched, so we completely understand that."
