Trump, in a different post, said he had had “a wonderful talk” with “the highly respected” Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin. “Our conversation was a very good one. We discussed many topics, including President Putin’s visit to Alaska.”
The high-stakes summit — the first in-person meeting between an American president and Putin since the latter launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, is meant to lay the ground for a ceasefire. Zelenskyy and European leaders were not invited to the meeting.
“The key thing is that this meeting should open up a real path toward a just peace and a substantive discussion between leaders in a trilateral format — Ukraine, the United States, and the Russian side,” Zelenskyy wrote in the social media post.
The summit is scheduled to kick off around 11 a.m. local time (9 p.m. Central European Time) at the military facility in Anchorage.
In the first part of the talks, Trump, Putin and their translators will convene privately. Then, discussions will continue in a president-plus-five format, with the Kremlin’s delegation consisting of Putin, plus Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov — whose Alaska outfit hinted at Soviet nostalgia — Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Putin’s adviser Ushakov and special presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, Russian state media reports.
The White House announced its delegation will consist of 16 people, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.