Closing summary
… and on that note, it’s a wrap!
US president Donald Trump said he was hoping for a “constructive” meeting to “feel out” the Russian position on Ukraine, claiming he “would know exactly” whether a deal could be made – but it wouldn’t be ultimately up to him to make it (16:44, 16:47).
Trump expressed some annoyance with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy for his comments on the summit, but insisted he would talk to him about next steps and call him first after the meeting “out of respect.”
He also confirmed plans to extensively consult with Ukraine and European leaders before the meeting (18:00).
This comes after an earlier report from Berlin that Germany plans a phone call between a group of European leaders, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Trump and vice-president JD Vance on Wednesday, so the parties can coordinate before Trump’s meeting with Putin on Friday (16:21).
The virtual call is expected to be attended by representatives of Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, the UK, as well as the EU and Nato, who will have a chat first before joining Trump and Vance (16:33).
The move comes after growing calls from European leaders to not get excluded them from this Friday’s Trump-Putin summit in Alaska (15:43), with Polish prime minister Donald Tusk revealing earlier that the US promised to consult the Europeans before the meeting (11:25).
EU foreign ministers are meeting this afternoon to discuss the issue and the bloc’s position before the talks.
In other news,
Large parts of south-western Europe were seeing extreme temperatures on Monday, with growing concerns about possible further wildfires (12:15, 13:57, 14:01, 14:11, 14:13, 15:19).
Finland’s national prosecutor’s office said it has brought charges against the captain and first and second officers of the Eagle S oil tanker over cutting of undersea cables in the Gulf on Finland in December last year (13:20).
French president Emmanuel Macron has warned that Israel’s plans to increase its military presence in Gaza amounted to “a disaster waiting to happen” (13:39).
And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today. Have a great weekend!
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at [email protected].
I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.
Updated
'Going to get everybody's ideas,' Trump says as he confirms consultations with Zelenskyy, Europe before Putin meeting
And Trump has just confirmed that he will be talking to the European leaders before his meeting with Putin, too.
He praises them as “great people, great leaders,” but claims they are “tired” of the war and “want to get back to spending money on their countries.”
He says he shas “extremely good” relationship with European leaders and confirms he will be taking to them, making a joke that there are “a lot of European leaders, but they rely on me.”
“So I’m talking to the European leaders, I’ll be talking to President Zelenskyy. I’m going to get everybody’s ideas.
I go into that thing fully loaded right up there, and we’re going to see what happens.
Now, I think one of two things is going to happen. It could be a good meeting, and we’ll go a step further. We’ll get it done. I’d like to see a ceasefire very, very quickly, very quick. I’d like to see it immediately …
And [so] we’re going to be dealing with the European leaders, and we’re going to be dealing with President Zelenskyy, and hopefully we’re going to have a great success.”
