Trump expects 'feel-out meeting'

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump said on Monday that his upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday in Alaska will be a "feel-out meeting" as European countries stressed that Ukraine must be able to "choose its destiny".

The US president has spent the first few months of his second term in office trying to broker peace in Ukraine, but multiple rounds of talks have so far failed to yield a breakthrough.

Trump and Putin will hold a summit in Alaska on Friday in a bid to halt the Ukraine conflict.

It will be the first meeting between the sitting US and Russian presidents since former US president Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021.

"This is really a feel-out meeting a little bit," Trump told reporters at the White House.

"I'm going to speak to Vladimir Putin and I'm going to be telling him 'you've got to end this war,'" Trump said, adding that he would "like to see a ceasefire very, very quickly".

"I think we'll have constructive conversations," said the president, noting he would seek out Putin's "parameters" for peace, then call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders right after the meeting.

Moscow hopes the upcoming meeting in Alaska will give momentum to the normalization of relations between the two countries, TASS news agency reported on Tuesday.

"We hope that the upcoming high-level meeting will give an impulse to the normalization of bilateral relations," TASS cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov as saying.

Trump said last week that "there'll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both" Ukraine and Russia, a suggestion Zelensky rejected.

The Ukrainian president warned on Saturday that "decisions without Ukraine" would not bring peace and said his country's people "will not give their land to the occupier".

Trump said he was a "little bothered" by Zelensky's stance on territorial concessions, and insisted that land swaps would take place.

Trump also stated that he would not make a unilateral agreement: "I'm not going to make a deal, it's not up to me to make a deal," he said, while emphasizing that he thinks "a deal should be made".

Diplomatic efforts

Meanwhile, Zelensky said Russia was preparing its troops for a new offensive instead of getting ready to stop the conflict in Ukraine, after he spoke to the leaders of India and Saudi Arabia on Monday as part of efforts to mobilize support for Kyiv beyond Europe.

"There is no sign that the Russians have received signals to prepare for a postwar situation," he said on Monday night.

Zelensky has won diplomatic backing from Europe and the NATO alliance.

EU leaders stressed on Tuesday "the inherent right of Ukraine to choose its own destiny".

"A just and lasting peace that brings stability and security must respect international law, including the principles of independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and that international borders must not be changed by force," a statement said.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has invited the French, British and other European leaders and the EU and NATO chiefs for virtual talks on Wednesday.

Merz's office said on Monday the leaders would discuss "further options to exert pressure on Russia" and "preparation of possible peace negotiations and related issues of territorial claims and security".

EU foreign ministers met in Brussels on Monday with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and also examined imposing a 19th package of sanctions on Russia.

On the battlefield, Ukraine has retaken two villages in its eastern region of Sumy, Kyiv's military said, adding to recent small territorial gains along the border.

Meanwhile, Russian air defense forces shot down 25 Ukrainian drones overnight over the Rostov region and Stavropol Krai, Russia's TASS state news agency reported on Tuesday, citing the Russian defense ministry.

Agencies - Xinhua