The White House stated that the objective of the meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin is to “better understand how to end” the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022.
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Trump’s government spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, explained during a press conference that the meeting between both leaders was organized because Putin requested it during last week’s conversation at the Kremlin with the US Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff.
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“Therefore, President Trump accepted this meeting at Putin’s request. The goal for the president is to better understand how we can end this war. (...) I believe that the fact that they are sitting face-to-face instead of talking on the phone will give the president the best indication of how to end this war and where it is headed,” said the White House spokesperson.
Where will the meeting between Trump and Putin take place?
Leavitt confirmed during his statement to the media that the meeting will take place this Friday in the city of Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska, marking the first encounter between the leaders of these two countries in over four years, since June 2021, and Putin’s first visit to the United States in 10 years, when he attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York and met with Barack Obama.
The chosen location is the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson of the United States Air Force and Army.
“On Friday morning, Trump will travel to Anchorage, Alaska, for a bilateral meeting with Putin. The brutal war between Russia and Ukraine broke out under the incompetent leadership of Joe Biden, but Trump is determined to try to end this war and stop the deaths,” said the spokesperson for the Republican government.
At the same time, he emphasized that the US president “always” has a “strong preference” for “peace and collaboration, whenever it is possible to achieve those results.” “No leader in the world at this moment has been more committed to preventing or ending wars than Trump,” he said.
His statements took place after the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, communicated by phone to discuss the preparations for the meeting.
Criticism from Ukraine and European countries
The bilateral meeting between Putin and Trump has been criticized by European leaders due to the absence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has been proposing a trilateral meeting for months.
Thus, Berlin organized a virtual meeting with several participants including Trump, Zelensky, and several European heads of state and government, as well as the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen; the President of the European Council, António Costa; and the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte.
Trump promised to speak with European leaders and with Zelensky himself after meeting with Putin, emphasizing that both will be “in a room” to resolve the Ukrainian conflict, and even said he would “try to regain some” Ukrainian territory.