The White House said that Donald Trump will be treating Friday's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin as a 'listening exercise'.
Officials yesterday confirmed that the high-stakes talks will take place in Alaska's largest city, Anchorage, with the US President 'determined to try to end this war [in Ukraine] and stop the killing'.
It came as Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky – who is excluded from the meeting – warned that Russia was 'readying for a new offensive' rather than preparing to end the war.
Speaking at a White House briefing, US press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: 'This is a listening exercise for the President. Only one party that's involved in this war is going to be present, so this is for the President to go and get a more firm understanding of how we can hopefully bring this war to an end.'
She appeared to temper expectations, adding: 'The President 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 a two-party war – you need both countries to agree to a deal.'
