Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been sidelined from peace talks between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday because the Russian leader extended the invitation to meet, according to the White House.
"The president is agreeing to this meeting, at the request of President Putin," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday. "And the goal of this meeting for the president is to walk away with a better understanding of how we can end this war."
"I think the president of the United States getting in the room with the president of Russia ,sitting face-to-face rather than speaking over the telephone will give this president the best indication of how to end this war and where this is headed," Leavitt said.
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Meanwhile Zelenskyy has remained firm that any decisions to end the war made without Ukraine will prove futile.
"Any decisions made against us, any decisions made without Ukraine - they are simultaneously decisions against peace," Zelenskyy said in a Saturday statement. "These are dead decisions; they will never work. And what we all need is a real, living peace, one that people will respect."
Other European allies have Ukraine's back. A group of European leaders issued a statement Saturday claiming that the "path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine."
Trump told reporters Monday that he predicted he'd know within minutes whether Putin was serious about hashing out a deal or not. He also acknowledged that Russia and Ukraine would have to navigate some "land swapping" issues as part of an agreement.
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Trump also said he would be in contact with Zelenskyy and other European leaders following the meeting with Putin.
"If it's a fair deal, I will reveal it to the European Union leaders and the NATO leaders and also to President Zelenskyy," Trump said. "I may say, 'lots of luck, keep fighting,' or I may say we can make a deal."
When asked if the meeting would pave the way for a peace deal, or whether the meeting would simply serve as an opportunity for Trump to feel out if a deal was even possible, Leavitt said the administration wasn't ruling out either option.
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"I think both can be true, right?" Leavitt said. "The president has always said he wants a peace deal. He wants to see this war come to an end. But this bilateral meeting is a bilateral meeting between one party in this two party war. Right. You need both countries to agree to a deal. The president is accepting this bilateral meeting with Putin on Friday, and I will let him speak further to it after it concludes about how he felt it went."
Trump and Putin are scheduled to meet in Anchorage, Alaska, Friday - despite the president's comments in recent days that the two would meet in Russia.
"There were many sites discussed, but of course, Alaska is a state within the United States of America," Leavitt said. "So the president is very honored and looks forward to hosting President Putin on American soil."
