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LONDON: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday praised US President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine, more than three years after Moscow launched its invasion, as the two leaders prepared for a pivotal US–Russia summit Friday in Alaska.
Following a meeting Thursday with top government officials on the summit, Putin said in a short video released by the Kremlin that the Trump administration was making “quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities” and to “reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved.”
Putin also suggested that “long-term conditions of peace between our countries, and in Europe, and in the world as a whole,” could be reached under an agreement with the US on nuclear arms control.
In Washington, Trump said there was a 25 percent chance that the summit would fail, but he also floated the idea that, if the meeting succeeds, he could bring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Alaska for a subsequent, three-way meeting.
In a radio interview with Fox News, Trump also said he might be willing to stay in Alaska longer, depending on what happens with Putin.
Meanwhile, Zelensky and other European leaders worked to ensure their interests are taken into account when Trump and Putin meet in Anchorage.
Uncertainty for Europe
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed Zelensky to London on Thursday in a show of British support for Ukraine a day before the critical Trump-Putin meeting. The two embraced warmly outside Starmer’s offices at 10 Downing Street without making any comments, and Zelensky departed about an hour later.
Zelensky’s trip to the British capital came a day after he took part in virtual meetings from Berlin with Trump and the leaders of several European countries. Those leaders said that Trump had assured them that he would make a priority of trying to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine when he meets with Putin.
Speaking after the meetings to reporters, Trump warned of “very severe consequences” for Russia if Putin doesn’t agree to stop the war against Ukraine after Friday’s meeting.
While some European leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, praised Wednesday’s video conference with Trump as constructive, uncertainty remained over how the US leader — whose rhetoric toward both Zelensky and Putin has evolved dramatically since retaking office this year — would conduct negotiations in the absence of any other interested parties.
Both Zelensky and the Europeans have worried that the bilateral US-Russia summit would leave them and their interests sidelined, and that any conclusions could favor Moscow and leave Ukraine and Europe’s future security in jeopardy.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov tamped down expectations for any breakthroughs from the Friday summit, saying there were no plans to sign documents and that it would be a “big mistake” to predict the results of the negotiations, according to Russian news outlet Interfax.
The Kremlin on Thursday said the meeting between Trump and Putin would begin at 11:30 a.m. local time. Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters that Trump and Putin will first sit down for a one-on-one meeting followed by a meeting between the two delegations. Then talks will continue over “a working breakfast.” A joint news conference will follow.
Trump contradicted the Kremlin, saying that no decisions have been made about holding a news conference with Putin. The uncertainty reflects just how much about the summit, including its schedule, remains unsettled.
Ukraine’s territorial integrity
Starmer said Wednesday that the Alaska summit could be a path to a ceasefire in Ukraine, but he also alluded to European concerns that Trump may strike a deal that forces Ukraine to cede territory to Russia. He warned that Western allies must be prepared to step up pressure on Russia if necessary.
During a call Wednesday among leaders of countries involved in the “coalition of the willing” — those who are prepared to help police any future peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv — Starmer stressed that any ceasefire deal must protect the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine.
“International borders cannot be, and must not be changed by force,’’ he said.
Kyiv has long insisted that safeguards against future Russian attacks provided by its Western allies would be a precondition for achieving a durable end to the fighting. Yet many Western governments have been hesitant to commit military personnel.
Countries in the coalition, which includes France and the UK, have been trying for months to secure US security backing, should it be required. Following Wednesday’s virtual meetings, Macron said Trump told the assembled leaders that while NATO must not be part of future security guarantees, “the United States and all the parties involved should take part.”
“It’s a very important clarification that we have received,” Macron said.
Trump did not reference any US security commitments during his comments to reporters on Wednesday.
Some Ukrainians are skeptical
With another high-level meeting on their country’s future on the horizon, some Ukrainians expressed skepticism about the summit’s prospects.
Oleksandra Kozlova, 39, who works at a digital agency in Kyiv, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she believes Ukrainians “have already lost hope” that meaningful progress can be made toward ending the war.
“I don’t think this round will be decisive,” she said. “There have already been enough meetings and negotiations promising us, ordinary people, that something will be resolved, that things will get better, that the war will end. Unfortunately, this has not happened, so personally I don’t see any changes coming.”
Anton Vyshniak, a car salesman in Kyiv, said Ukraine’s priority now should be saving the lives of its military service members, even at the expense of territorial concessions.
“At the moment, the most important thing is to preserve the lives of male and female military personnel. After all, there are not many human resources left,” he said. “Borders are borders, but human lives are priceless.”
Russia and Ukraine trade strikes
Zelensky said Thursday that Ukraine had secured the release of 84 people from Russian captivity, including both soldiers and civilians. Those freed included people held by Russia since 2014, 2016 and 2017, as well as soldiers who had defended the now Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol, Zelensky wrote on Telegram.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday that it too had received 84 soldiers as part of a prisoner exchange.
In other developments, Russian strikes in Ukraine’s Sumy region overnight Wednesday resulted in numerous injuries, Ukrainian regional officials said. A missile strike on a village in the Seredyna-Budska community wounded a 7-year-old girl and a 27-year-old man, according to regional governor Oleh Hryhorov. The girl was hospitalized in stable condition.
In Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack damaged several apartment buildings in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, near the border with Ukraine, where 13 civilians were wounded, according to acting governor of the region, Yuri Slyusar. Two of the wounded were hospitalized in serious condition, Slyusar said.
 

BELGRADE: Thousands of anti-government protesters returned to the streets in Serbia on Thursday after two days of clashes with loyalists of autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic and riot police that left dozens injured or detained. Police fired tear gas in the country’s capital and several other incidents were reported elsewhere.
In the northern city of Novi Sad, where the anti-Vucic revolt in Serbia started more than nine months ago, groups of young protesters shouted, “He is finished,” as they demolished the offices of the president’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party.
The demonstrators broke windows on the party’s downtown office and carried away some documents and pieces of furniture from inside. The police or Vucic’s supporters, who have guarded the office for months, where nowhere to be seen.
In Belgrade, the Serbian capital, police in the evening fired tear gas in at least two locations to disperse the protesters and keep groups of supporters of the opposing camps apart. Protesters in a downtown area scrambled in panic, some tumbling to the ground as they tried to run away.
Vucic told pro-government Informer television that “the state will win” as he announced a crackdown on anti-government protesters, accusing them of inciting violence and of being “enemies of their own country.”
He reiterated earlier claims that the protests have been organized from abroad, offering no evidence.
The unrest throughout Serbia this week marked a serious escalation in largely peaceful demonstrations led by Serbia’s university students that have shaken Vucic’s firm grip on power in the Balkan country.
Rival groups on Wednesday hurled rock and bottles at each other amid clouds of smoke and chaos. An army security officer at the SNS party offices at one point fired his gun in the air, saying later he felt his life had been in danger.
Interior Minister Ivica Dacic on Thursday said there were gatherings at some 90 locations in the country the previous evening.
The Serbian president has faced accusations of stifling democratic freedoms and of allowing organized crime and corruption to flourish in the country that is a candidate for European Union membership. He denies those allegations.
The EU’s Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said the reports of violence were “deeply concerning.”
“Advancing on the EU path requires citizens can express their views freely and journalists can report without intimidation or attacks,” Kos added on the social media platform X.
Protesters gathered in large numbers again on Thursday evening in the capital Belgrade, in Novi Sad and in some smaller towns, defying sharp warnings against protests from Vucic and other government officials.
On Wednesday evening in Belgrade riot police used tear gas to disperse groups of protesters. Police officers formed a cordon around a makeshift camp of Vucic’s loyalists outside the presidency building downtown.
Dacic, the interior minister, accused the protesters of attacking governing party loyalists. He said “those who broke the law will be identified and sanctioned.”
University students posted on X to accuse the authorities of trying to “provoke a civil war with the clashes” at demonstrations. The rallies so far passed for the most part without incident even while drawing hundreds of thousands of people.
Occasional violence in the past months mostly involved incidents between protesters and the police, rather than between rival groups.
“Police were guarding the regime loyalists who were throwing rocks and firing flares at the protesters,” a post by the informal group, Students in Blockade, said. The account is run by students from across Serbia who have been protesting the government since late last year.
Demonstrations started in November after a renovated train station canopy crashed in Novi Sad, killing 16 people and triggering accusations of corruption in state-run infrastructure projects.
The protesters are demanding that Vucic call an early parliamentary election, which he has refused to do. Serbia is formally seeking EU membership, but Vucic has maintained strong ties with Russia and China.