The road to Alaska

President Donald Trump, from left, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Vladimir Putin. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, left and center, Pavel Bednyakov, right)

Greetings from Kyiv,

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone who tuned in to our Saturday special, “Ukraine: On the Frontlines.” Things are moving quickly over here, particularly with the news of a bilateral summit in Alaska with President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

What are the objectives of Friday’s summit? Will Kyiv continue to dig in its heels on the idea of territorial swaps? And is the United States ready for this new era of warfare that has taken hold in Ukraine? All of that and more is discussed in our hourlong special, which you can watch in its entirety here.

We also took a deeper dive into Ukraine’s use of drone warfare.

And we introduced you to a near all-female unit called “The Witches of Bucha,” who by day go about their normal lives, but by night are tasked with shooting down Russian drones. 

Today, the big question is whether this bilateral summit will become a trilateral, if the White House decides to invite the Ukrainians to the negotiating table. As of Monday morning, Ukraine is still on the outside looking in, and leaders believe they should be included in any conversations involving the future of their country.

To this point, Putin has insisted the time is not right for him to sit down with Zelenskyy.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said he doesn’t believe it’s necessary for Ukraine to be included in the summit and that it will inevitably be looped in later. 

Objective number one, he says, is for Trump to take the temperature of the Russian Federation and see if they’re actually interested in peace.

“What will happen Friday is testing Putin by president Trump,” Rutte said on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday. “When it comes to peace talks and a ceasefire and what happens after that on territories and security guarantees for Ukraine, Ukraine will have to be and will be involved. But on Friday, it’s important to see how serious Putin is.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, expressed his doubts about whether the Kremlin is serious and said he fears Russia will attempt to “deceive” Trump.

“Of course, our team is working with the United States,” Zelenskyy said in a statement Sunday. “Not a single day goes by without communication on how to ensure real peace. We understand Russia’s intention to try to deceive America — we will not allow this. I greatly value the determination with which President Trump is committed to bringing an end to the killings in this war.”

In an interview with Fox News, Vice President JD Vance said the ultimate goal is to strike a balance between the two sides, and he acknowledged neither Russia nor Ukraine is likely to walk away satisfied. 

“If you take the current line of contact between where Russia and Ukraine is, we’re gonna try to find some negotiated settlement the Ukrainians and Russians can live with,” Vance said. “It’s not going to make anybody super happy. Both the Russians and the Ukrainians, probably, at the end of the day, are going to be unhappy with it.”

Russia’s public demands have called for annexing territory in Ukraine that they don’t even occupy, which a public survey in Ukraine says 76% of the population is against.

But as Kurt Volker, former ambassador to NATO, told colleague Natasha Zouves and I on Saturday, that’s just a starting point, and it will be up to the U.S., particularly Trump, to get the negotiated stance into a territory the Ukrainians could accept. You can watch that full conversation here.

We expect to live in a different world by Friday, and will keep you updated as things develop. 

Once more, thank you for all of your support surrounding my book, “Lessons from the Front.” It’s been a blessing to see a renewed interest in my reporting from Ukraine this week. As I’ve said before, the day Russia invaded Ukraine and I was on a plane to Europe, my life changed forever. For those stories and more, you can preorder my book through Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Bloomsbury.