Rubio, Lavrov discuss the agenda before Trump-Putin talks

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke on Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov preparing for the Alaska summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the Foreign Ministry said.

“Both sides have confirmed their commitment to a successful event,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Tammy Bruce told reporters.

Bruce confirmed that Putin had requested the meeting, which will take place on Friday in the US state of Alaska.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the meeting as a “personal victory” for Putin, who had avoided the West since his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Rubio, in a radio interview earlier on Tuesday, rejected the criticism of the summit.

Trump “feels like,” Look, I have to look at this guy on the table, I have to see him face to face.

“People need to understand – for President Trump, a meeting is not a concession,” Rubio said.

Trump said that any peace agreement would entail “some land exchange in the improvement of both” Russia and Ukraine, which has so far depends on the US as a major weapon supplier.

But because all of the controversial areas are in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky and European Union allies fear that he will face the pressure to abandon much more than Russia is doing.

Trump’s administration measured expectations on Tuesday for significant progress towards the ceasefire, inviting his meeting with Putin on Friday in Alaska a “listening exercise”.

Zelensky and most of his European counterparts said that a constant peace cannot be secured without Ukraine at the negotiating table and an agreement must comply with international law, Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

They will hold a virtual meeting with Trump on Wednesday to highlight these concerns before Putin’s summit, the first US-Russia summit from 2021.

“A mimic and not genuine peace will not last long and will only encourage Russia to exploit even more ground,” Zelensky said in a statement on Tuesday.

Zelensky said Russia should agree with the ceasefire before the territorial issues were discussed. It will reject any Russian proposal that Ukraine was pulling its troops from the eastern Donbas region and granting its defense lines.

Asked why Zelensky did not participate in US and Russian leaders at the Alaska Summit, a White House spokesman said on Tuesday that the bilateral meeting had been proposed by Putin and that Trump accepted a “better understanding” of how to end.

“Only a party involved in this war is going to be present, so this is for the president to go and get a more stable and better understanding of how we can hope to bring this war,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “You need both countries to agree on an agreement.”