US President Donald Trump has said that he believes his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is ready to end his war in Ukraine, but that peace would likely require at least a second meeting involving Ukraine's leader.
Mr Trump was speaking to reporters at the White House on the eve of a summit in Alaska between him and Mr Putin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his European allies have intensified their efforts this week to prevent any deal between the US and Russia emerging from tomorrow's summit that leaves Ukraine vulnerable to future attack.
"I think President Putin will make peace, I think President Zelenskiy will make peace," Mr Trump said. "We'll see if they get along."
He has downplayed talk of a ceasefire emerging from the summit and speculated about a possible second meeting to come, involving more leaders.
"I think it's going to be a good meeting, but the more important meeting will be the second meeting that we're having. We're going to have a meeting with President Putin, President Zelensky, myself, and maybe we'll bring some of the European leaders along. Maybe not. I don't know that."
Mr Putin earlier spoke to his most senior ministers and security officials as he prepared for a meeting with Mr Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, that could shape the endgame to the largest war in Europe since World War II.
In televised comments, Mr Putin said the US was "making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict."
This was happening, Mr Putin said, "to create long-term conditions for peace between our countries, and in Europe, and in the world as a whole - if, by the next stages, we reach agreements in the area of control over strategic offensive weapons."
His comments signalled that Russia will raise nuclear arms control as part of a wide-ranging discussion on security when he sits down with Mr Trump.
A Kremlin aide said Mr Putin and Mr Trump would also discuss the "huge untapped potential" for Russia-US economic ties.
A senior Eastern European official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said Mr Putin would try to distract Mr Trump from Ukraine at the talks by offering him possible progress on nuclear arms control or something business-related.
"We hope Trump won't be fooled by the Russians; he understands all (these) dangerous things," the official said, adding that Russia's only goal was to avoid any new sanctions and have existing sanctions lifted.
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Mr Trump said there would be a press conference after the talks, but that he did not know whether it would be joint.
He also said in an earlier interview with Fox News that there would be "a give and take" on boundaries and land.
"This meeting sets up like a chess game," Mr Trump said. "This (first) meeting sets up a second meeting, but there is a 25% chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting," he said.
Mr Trump said it would be up to Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky to strike an agreement, saying: "I'm not going to negotiate their deal."
Russia controls around a fifth of Ukraine, and Mr Zelensky and the Europeans worry that a deal could cement those gains, rewarding Mr Putin for 11 years of efforts to seize Ukrainian land and emboldening him to expand further into Europe.
An EU diplomat said it would be "scary to see how it all unfolds in the coming hours. Trump had very good calls yesterday with Europe, but that was yesterday."
Mr Trump had shown willingness to join the security guarantees for Ukraine at a last-ditch virtual meeting with European leaders and Mr Zelensky yesterday, European leaders said, though he made no public mention of them afterwards.
The summit in Alaska, the first Russia-US summit since June 2021, comes at one of the toughest moments for Ukraine in a war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Speaking after yesterday's meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron said Mr Trump had said the transatlantic NATO alliance should not be part of any security guarantees designed to protect Ukraine from future attacks in a post-war settlement.
However, Mr Trump also said the US and all willing allies should be part of the security guarantees, Mr Macron added.
Expanding on that, a European official told Reuters that Mr Trump said on the call he was willing to provide some security guarantees for Europe, without spelling out what they would be.
It "felt like a big step forward," said the official, who did not want to be named.
It was not immediately clear what such guarantees could mean in practice.
Yesterday, Mr Trump threatened "severe consequences" if the Russian leader does not agree to peace in Ukraine and has warned of economic sanctions if his meeting tomorrow proves fruitless.
Russia is likely to resist Ukraine and Europe's demands and has previously said its stance had not changed since it was first detailed by Mr Putin in June 2024.
UK PM hosts Zelensky in London
The Ukrainian leader met British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a strong show of support on the eve of the key summit in Alska.
Mr Starmer greeted Mr Zelensky at Number 10 Downing Street, only hours after Mr Zelensky took part in a virtual call with Mr Trump.
The prime minister said that there was now a "viable" chance for a ceasefire in Ukraine after more than three years of fighting.
Mr Zelensky, who has refused to surrender territory to Russia, joined the call from Berlin with Mr Trump, as did European leaders who voiced confidence afterward that the US leader would seek a ceasefire rather than concessions by Kyiv.
The Ukrainian leader has publicly supported US diplomacy but has made clear his deep scepticism.
"I have told my colleagues - the US president and our European friends - that Putin definitely does not want peace," Mr Zelensky said.
As the war rages on in eastern Ukraine, Mr Zelensky was also in Berlin yesterday joining Chancellor Friedrich Merz on an online call with other European leaders, and the NATO and EU chiefs, to show a united stance against Russia.
Mr Starmer said yesterday that Ukraine's military backers, the so-called Coalition of the Willing, had drawn up workable military plans in case of a ceasefire but were also ready to add pressure on Russia through sanctions.
"For three and a bit years this conflict has been going, we haven't got anywhere near... a viable way of bringing it to a ceasefire," Mr Starmer told yesterday's meeting of European leaders.
"Now we do have that chance, because of the work that the (US) president has put in," he said.
What deal might emerge from the Trump-Putin summit?
