Donald Trump has warned Vladimir Putin that he will face “very severe consequences” if he fails to agree a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine during their upcoming summit in Alaska. Speaking after a call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, the US president said he would also push for a second summit with both leaders if the first meeting goes well.
“If the first one goes OK, we’ll have a quick second one,” Trump told reporters in Washington. “I would like to do it almost immediately, and we’ll have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelenskyy and myself, if they’d like to have me there.” The meeting with Putin is scheduled for Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson in Anchorage, a military facility that played a key role during the Cold War.
The president’s remarks followed what he described as a “very good” video call with European leaders, during which he reassured them that a ceasefire was his priority and that no territorial concessions would be made without Kyiv’s full involvement. According to France’s Emmanuel Macron, Trump’s approach appeared to reassure leaders, who had been making a final collective plea for him to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty and European security.
Britain, France and Germany, co-chairs of the “coalition of the willing”, later reiterated that international borders must not be changed by force and that Ukraine must have “robust and credible security guarantees”. They called for further economic sanctions against Russia if it does not agree to cease hostilities at the summit. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged a 30-day ceasefire, noting that Putin has resisted such a move for months, while Macron said no serious discussions had taken place on Russian-Ukrainian land swaps.
