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“I would rate it a 10,” Trump said of a morning call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders.
WASHINGTON − President Donald Trump said he’d like Vladimir Putin to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “almost immediately” after his upcoming Alaskan summit with the Russian leader. According to reports, Trump’s summit with Putin would set the stage for a possible meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy that Trump might join as well.
The president participated in a call earlier on August 13 with Zelenskyy and European leaders, two days before his one-on-one summit with Putin in Alaska. Trump is trying to push Moscow into a peace deal that Kyiv and its allies fear will include the loss of significant territory seized by Russia in its three-year war against Ukraine.
“I would rate it a 10,” Trump told reporters on August 13 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., describing his call as “very friendly.”
Zelenskyy arrived in Berlin for a virtual conference hosted by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that included leaders from Finland, France, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, the European Union, and NATO. Vice President JD Vance was also expected to join.
” They are great people who want to see a deal done,” Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier on August 13.
Trump is meeting with Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15 without Zelenskyy or any leaders from European countries, who were expected to warn Trump against agreeing to Putin’s demands. This week, Trump raised the idea of a “land swap” in which Ukraine would give up territory to Russia in a potential peace deal and said he was “a little bothered” by Zelenskyy’s argument that it would violate his country’s constitution.
The White House has sought to temper expectations about Trump’s meeting with Putin, which comes after Trump expressed frustration with the Russian leader’s unwillingness to halt fighting in Ukraine. The White House said Putin requested the meeting and added, “This is a listening exercise for the president. This is for the president to go and to get a more firm and better understanding of how we can hopefully bring this war to an end.”
Source link: [http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/08/13/trump-zelenskyy-meeting-summit-putin/85638658007/](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/08/13/trump-zelenskyy-meeting-summit-putin/85638658007/)
