US President Donald Trump said he expects a "constructive conversation" with Russian President Vladimir Putin on ending the war in Ukraine, as Brussels seeks to forge a role for Kyiv at the summit.
"I'm going to tell him, 'You've got to end this war,'" Trump told a White House press conference when asked about his August 15 meeting with Putin in Alaska, adding he would like to see a quick cease-fire to the more than 3-year-old conflict.
At the same time, EU foreign ministers were holding a video conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha, who warned the Alaska summit could present a diplomatic "trap" that Russia could use as an opportunity to evade responsibility for the war and establish a foothold for further offensives.
Talking to journalists on August 11, Trump repeated that a potential Ukraine-Russia deal could involve "land swapping" but signaled he might walk away from the peace process depending on "the parameters" discussed at his summit with Putin.
“At the end of that meeting, probably the first two minutes, I’ll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made,” Trump said. He said the sit-down with Putin will be "really a feel-out meeting."
“It’ll be good, but it might be bad” and said he may say, "lots of luck, keep fighting. Or I may say, we can make a deal.”
Trump further said he would call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders right after the meeting.
He added the potential peace deal itself is not for the United States to decide and described Zelenskyy-Putin meeting as central to the settlement of the conflict. "The next meeting will be with Zelenskyy and Putin, or Zelenskyy, Putin, and me. I'll be there if they need."
A day earlier, following Zelenskyy's numerous calls to the European capitals, Brussels reaffirmed its stance, urging Trump to put more pressure on Russia.
"The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine," leaders from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Britain, and Finland, along with EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, said in a joint statement on August 10.
Asked if Zelenskyy would attend the Alaska summit, Trump gave no clear answer, but said he was “a little bothered” by Zelenskyy’s comment that any territorial concessions would need constitutional approval.
"I mean, he's got approval to go into war and kill everybody. But he needs approval to do a land swap?" Trump said. "Russia has occupied some prime territory, we will try to get some of that territory back for Ukraine."
As Washington appeared to be preparing Kyiv and Moscow for major compromises to end the war, Sybiha told the EU foreign ministers conference Putin sees his meeting with Trump as a "reward and justification" for Russia's aggression.
US Vice President JD Vance on August 10 told Fox News that any peace deal will likely leave both sides "unhappy."
"It's not going to make anybody super happy. Both the Russians and the Ukrainians, probably, at the end of the day, are going to be unhappy with it," he added.
Sybiha, however, suggested the US-Russia negotiations could be beneficial to Putin.
"He is not a peacemaker, he is a peace breaker. To achieve true peace and avoid these traps, we must destroy Putin's plans and scenarios," Sybiha told EU diplomats.
In his nightly address on August 10, Zelenskyy said, "We understand Russia's intention to try to deceive America -- we will not allow this."
The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), the representative organization of Americans of Ukrainian descent, warned in a news release on August 11 that any secret bargain over Ukraine’s future would be a betrayal of America’s values.
"UCCA condemns any meeting that risks bargaining away Ukraine’s sovereignty behind closed doors," the UCCA said.
The talks come at a pivotal moment, with Trump increasingly frustrated with Putin and the Russian president showing no signs of bending on the Kremlin's maximalist demands.
European leaders have welcomed Trump's efforts to try to resolve the 41-month-old military conflict but emphasized the need to pressure Moscow and provide security guarantees for Kyiv.
In another statement released by Kyiv's Western allies on August 10, the Nordic-Baltic 8 group voiced its support for Ukraine and said peace could only be brought about through increased pressure on Russia to stop its "unlawful" war.
The leaders of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden stated they "reaffirm the principle that international borders must not be changed by force."
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed negotiators, has reported that European officials presented a counterproposal to the unspecified US plan, including a requirement that a cease-fire take place before any other steps are made and that any swaps of territory be reciprocal and include security guarantees.
European officials presented their proposals to Vance during a meeting with Ukrainian and European officials at a country mansion outside of London on August 9, the report said.
Russia's invasion has turned into the largest land war in Europe in more than 50 years, devastating Ukraine and transforming Russia, turning its economy into a war machine and establishing a police-state government criminalizing dissent.
Moscow's casualties, dead and wounded, stand at more than 1 million, according to Western estimates. Ukraine's war dead are believed to exceed 100,000, with overall casualties around 400,000.
As the talks near, both sides continue to launch attacks on each other.
In the early hours of August 11, Russian air strikes hit Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhya regions, while Ukrainian drones targeted sites deep inside Russia.
The Ukrainian Air Force said it successfully downed 59 Shahed-type drones and decoys out of 71 launched from the Russian towns and cities of Shatalovo, Kursk, Millerovo, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk. Twelve drones managed to hit six locations, while debris from others fell at one site.
In Arzamas, Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region, a Ukrainian drone attack on August 11 on an industrial site killed one worker and injured two, local Governor Gleb Nikitin confirmed. Ukrainian social media channels circulated footage allegedly showing the strike on the Arzamas Instrument-Making Plant.
The Russian military said it shot down 39 Ukrainian drones overnight across several regions as well as over Russia-annexed Crimea.
