End to Russia-Ukraine war on agenda as US President, Russian President meet in Alaska’s Anchorage

One person who won’t be at today’s summit is the man leading the country over which Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are negotiating.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that any decisions made in Kyiv’s absence will be “dead decisions”. He’s rejected any proposal that involves ceding territory to Russia and says Ukrainian issues should be discussed by “at least three people”.

Trump has said his aim at the meeting is to “set the table” for a potential second gathering, this time involving him, Putin and Zelensky, and possibly other European officials.

The US president has promised to brief Zelensky and several European leaders straight after his talks with Putin. He’s said he’ll know within minutes whether he and Putin will “have a good meeting” and “if it’s bad, it will end early”.

Asked whether Zelensky was on standby to join the pair if things went well, Trump said he wouldn’t speculate whether a second meeting would go ahead. Zelensky and Putin have not met face-to-face since Russia’s invasion began.

Asked why Zelensky was not included in the Alaska summit, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said this week Trump “is agreeing to this meeting at the request of President Putin”.

European leaders weren’t invited to Friday’s summit either, but have rallied behind Zelensky. He met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London on Thursday (Friday AEST), a day after the pair joined other European leaders and Trump in an online meeting to discuss strategy ahead of the summit.

With wires