Trump to test Putin’s commitment to end the Ukraine War at the next summit

President Donald Trump will use the next summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin to test how serious Putin is to end war with Ukraine, NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte said on Sunday.

Rutte told ABC “this week” that the meeting comes in when Trump continues to put Putin pressure, noting the recent secondary sanctions against countries like Indiawhich bought Russian oil and delivering deadly weapons to Ukraine.

“Next Friday will be important because it will be a question of testing Putin, how serious it is to put an end to this terrible war,” said Rutte.

Trump announced the first meeting in person with Putin since Moscow launched his deadly invasion of Ukraine on Saturday in 2022 in a social article Truth. Managers should meet in Alaska on Friday August 15.

Trump, Putin will hold the first meeting in person since the invasion of Ukraine

President Donald Trump speaks at a meeting with NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, when he arrives for a NATO summit in Hague, the Netherlands, June 25, 2025. (Piroschka van de Wouw, swimming pool photo via AP)

In recent weeks, Trump has refused to chew the words when he asked him about Putin. Trump said that at a meeting of the cabinet on July 8, he was fed up with Putin and said he was potentially planning new sanctions to Russia.

The NATO chief called the next meeting “an important step” in the process of reaching large -scale peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.

President Donald Trump meets Russian President Vladimir Putin on the first day of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan on June 28, 2019. The summit between the two leaders of Alaska on Friday will be their first in person since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. (Kremlin Press Office / Handout / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should not be at the top with Trump and Putin on Sunday. Despite the absence of Zelenskyy, Rutte said that “we need Ukraine at the table”.

“It will be a territory,” said Rutte about the next meeting. “It will, of course, be security guarantees, but also the absolute need to recognize that Ukraine decides on its own future, that Ukraine must be a sovereign nation deciding on its geopolitical future, of course having no limitation to its own military troops, and so that OTAT has no limitation to our presence on the eastern flank in countries like Latvie, Esonia and Finland.

Putin Ally warns that Titanic’s efforts “are underway to pour the Trump’s summit on the Ukrainian war

The American ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker told CNN on Sunday that no decision had been made at this stage of knowing if Zelenskyy would be invited to the meeting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks with the media at the European Council meeting on December 19, 2024 in Brussels, Belgium. On Sunday morning, Zelenskyy should not be in Reunion in Alaska. (Pier Marco Tacca / Getty Images)

“If (Trump) thinks it is the best scenario to invite Zelenskyy, then he will,” said Whitaker, adding that “it’s time to make this decision”.

When asked if Putin could trust, Whitaker said that in any situation of national competing interests, it will be actions, not words, which decide if peace is achieved and preserved.

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“The words are cheap, but in this case, whether the Russians or the Ukrainians, the two parties will have to take action to have peace and continue to honor this peace,” he said.

Diana Stancy of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.