Trump-Putin summit newest: US president to debate Ukraine warfare at this time with Zelensky and European leaders

German chancellor Friedrich Merz and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky are scheduled to deliver press statements at around 2pm GMT (3pm BST) on Wednesday in Berlin, according to the German chancellery’s schedule.

Zelensky is in the German capital on a day of talks between Western leaders ahead of US president Donald Trump’s planned summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky will be in Berlin on Wednesday, his spokesman said. “The president is working in Berlin today,” the spokesman said, adding that a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is planned too.

Former Conservative MP Jack Lopresti, who has joined the Ukraine Foreign Legion, has condemned the upcoming summit between Trump and Putin while speaking to Sky News.

“Europe has to be prepared to do more in terms of defence manufacturing, defence spending, the size of their militaries, and to provide a credible deterrent against Putin’s aggression now and future aggression.

“The days of relying on the Americans are probably now long gone.”

He continued: “There shouldn’t even be talks between Putin and Trump on an individual basis without President Zelensky, and there certainly shouldn’t be any talks without a ceasefire.

“Putin’s being rewarded with this high profile event. He’s conceded nothing. He hasn’t in any way diminished his view that Ukraine should be a sovereign country.”

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is set to travel to Berlin today where he will join German chancellor Friedrich Merz for a video call with US president Donald Trump, a government source has told Reuters.

European leaders will meet with Nato and EU officials, as well as Zelensky, at 12pm GMT (1pm BST).

An hour later, European leaders will meet separately with Trump and US vice president JD Vance.

The coalition of the willing, hosted by Germany France and the UK, will then meet at 2.30pm (3.30pm BST), before Chancellor Merz enters a press conference at a time that has not been revealed yet.

Read here for more information on what we know about this European summit:

Putin and Kim spoke yesterday, pledging “closer contact in the future” and discussing issues of mutual concern, according to North Korea’s state media, the Korean Central News Agency reported.

Siberian fur traders arrived from across the Bering Sea in the early 18th century, and the imprint of Russian settlement in Alaska remains.

The oldest building in Anchorage is a Russian Orthodox church, and many Alaska Natives have Russian surnames.

The nations are so close that Alaska’s Little Diomede Island in the Bering Strait is less than 3 miles (5km) from Russia’s Big Diomede. So former Governor Sarah Palin was right during the 2008 presidential race when she said, “You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska”.

European leaders – including Ukraine’s Volodymr Zelensky – will speak to US president Donald Trump in a virtual meeting today ahead of his summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, as they try to drive home the perils of selling out Kyiv’s interests in pursuit of a ceasefire.

“We are focusing now to ensure that it does not happen – engaging with US partners and staying coordinated and united on the European side. Still a lot of time until Friday,” said one senior official from eastern Europe.

The video conference involving Trump, Zelensky, Sir Keir Starmer and the leaders of Germany, Finland, France, Italy, Poland and the European Union is expected to take place at 12pm GMT (1400 CET), a German government spokesperson said.

Nato’s secretary general will also attend the conference hosted by German chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Trump hosts Putin, a pariah in the West since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, at talks in Alaska on Friday that the US president has said will serve as a “feel-out” meeting in his efforts to end the Russo-Ukraine war.

The unpredictability of how the summit will play out has fuelled European fears that the US and Russian leaders could take far-reaching decisions and even seek to coerce Ukraine into an unfavourable deal.

Trump says both Kyiv and Moscow will have to cede land to end the war. Russian troops have already occupied almost a fifth of Ukraine.

More than 200 days after Donald Trump’s self-imposed deadline to end Russia’s war against Ukraine on the first day of his second term, the White House is quietly acknowledging that his upcoming summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin isn’t likely to result in a ceasefire.

The president and his Russian counterpart are set to meet Friday for a hastily arranged sit-down in Alaska, giving Putin the honour of being welcomed onto American territory by an American president and bringing an end to the international isolation he has faced since launching the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

On Monday, Trump said he may well know whether Putin is truly interested in reaching an agreement to end the war he started within just two minutes of sitting down with the Russian leader.

Speaking to reporters during a press conference in the White House briefing room, he said: “I may say, ‘lots of luck, keep fighting,’ or I may say we can make a deal.”

Russian forces have made a sudden thrust into eastern Ukraine near the coal mining town of Dobropillia, a move that may be an attempt to increase the pressure on Kyiv to give up land as the US and Russian presidents prepare to meet.

Ukraine’s authoritative DeepState war map showed yesterday that Russian forces had advanced by at least 10km (six miles) north in two prongs in recent days, part of their drive to take full control of Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

The advance is one of the most dramatic in the last year, although military analysts said the Russians were using small groups of soldiers to try to establish footholds and that it was uncertain if they could maintain their positions in the face of a Ukrainian pushback.