WASHINGTON: The United States is working to “schedule” a meeting between President Donald Trump and his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, Vice President JD Vance said Sunday, as Ukraine’s European allies push for Kyiv’s presence at the US-Russia summit in Alaska on Friday.
“One of the most important logjams is that Vladimir Putin said that he would never sit down with (Volodymyr) Zelensky, the head of Ukraine, and the president has now got that to change,” Vance said during an interview on the Fox News programme “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“We’re at a point now where we’re trying to figure out, frankly, scheduling and things like that around when these three leaders could sit down and discuss an end to this conflict,” Vance said when asked about his expectations for the Alaska summit on August 15.
The US vice president said the United States was going to “try to find some negotiated settlement that the Ukrainians and Russians can live with.”
Vance added: “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.”
The planned US-Russia summit in Alaska without Zelensky had raised concerns that a deal would require Kyiv to cede swaths of territory, which the European Union has rejected.
US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker suggested on CNN that Zelensky could attend the summit.
He was asked whether Zelensky might join Trump and Putin on Friday.
“Yes, I certainly think it’s possible,” he said. “Certainly, there can’t be a deal that everybody that’s involved in it doesn’t agree to. And, I mean, obviously, it’s a high priority to get this war to end.”
Zelensky held calls with 13 counterparts over three days, including Kyiv’s main backers Germany, Britain and France.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday that he hoped and assumed that Zelensky would attend the summit.
Whitaker said the decision would ultimately be Trump’s to make.
“If he thinks that that is the best scenario to invite Zelensky, then he will do that,” he said, adding that “no decision has been made to this point.”
EU to hold urgent Ukraine talks
Europe fears any deal made without Ukraine could force unacceptable compromises. EU foreign ministers will hold emergency talks on Monday to discuss their next steps before talks between Putin and Trump.
EU foreign ministers will discuss their next steps in a meeting by video link on Monday at 1400 GMT, joined by their Ukrainian counterpart Andriy Sybiga, AFP reported.
“The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine,” leaders from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Britain and Finland, and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a joint statement, urging Trump to put more pressure on Russia.
Leaders of the Nordic and Baltic countries — Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden — also said no decisions should be taken without Kyiv’s involvement.
