LONDON: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with ally UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London on Thursday ahead of a key US-Russia summit in Alaska.
Zelensky was to arrive at 9:30 am (0830 GMT) at Downing Street, the prime minister’s office said, after Starmer on Wednesday maintained there was now a “viable” chance for a Ukraine ceasefire.
US President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin will meet Friday at an air base in the far-northern US state, the first time the Russian leader has been permitted on Western soil since his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine which has killed tens of thousands of people.
A stepped-up Russian offensive, and the fact Zelensky has not been invited to the Anchorage meeting Friday, have heightened fears that Trump and Putin could strike a deal that forces painful concessions on Ukraine.
Near the front line Thursday, Ukraine fired dozens of drones at Russia overnight into the early morning, wounding three people and sparking fires including at an oil refinery in the southern city of Volgograd.
