Vance Secures Key Talks In Europe Before Trump-Putin Alaska Summit

Vice President JD Vance has wrapped up a series of high-level meetings in Europe that U.S. officials say made “significant progress” toward President Donald Trump’s goal of ending the war in Ukraine just days before Trump’s planned summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

At Washington’s request, Vance met with U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy and other European officials over the weekend to address the conflict in Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East, and broader economic and technology cooperation. Friday’s meeting took place at Chevening House in Kent, England, with further discussions on Saturday lasting several hours.

“Saturday’s hours-long meetings produced significant progress toward President Trump’s goal of bringing an end to the war in Ukraine,” a U.S. official said.

The diplomatic push comes as Trump readies for Friday’s meeting with Putin a sit-down the president says could result in “some swapping of territories, to the betterment” of both Russia and Ukraine. Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, including much of the Donbas region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has not met with Putin since the war began, has urged more sanctions and pressure on Russia rather than territorial concessions. In a video message Sunday, he declared, “If Russia does not want to stop the war, then its economy must be stopped.” Zelenskyy has sought to join the Alaska talks but has not been formally invited.

On Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures, Vance said the U.S. is working toward a meeting that includes Zelenskyy but believes it should follow Trump’s session with Putin. “One of the most important logjams is that Vladimir Putin said that he would never sit down with Zelenskyy the president has now got that to change,” Vance said.

The Kremlin has praised Alaska as the meeting site, noting the U.S. and Russia are “close neighbours” across the Bering Strait. A Russian government statement said the talks would “focus on discussing ways to reach a sustainable settlement to the Ukraine crisis” and extended an invitation for the next meeting to be held in Russia.

With tensions high and the war entering its fourth year, the Alaska summit could mark a pivotal moment if Trump can translate this week’s diplomatic groundwork into a breakthrough with Putin.

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