By Steve Holland and Gram Slattery
WASHINGTON, July 5 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy while in Turkey this week for a NATO summit to make a renewed push to end the war in Ukraine, a senior U.S. official said on Sunday.
Trump is scheduled to arrive at the summit on Tuesday. His first meeting will be with the summit host, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. Trump will also meet with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and hold a news conference, the White House said.
A senior U.S. official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity about the trip said Trump will meet with Zelenskiy on Wednesday to discuss “how we can end the war.”
“The battlefield has clearly frozen over the last couple of months and neither side is making a lot of progress,” the official said. “The president feels a real sense of urgency to try to bring this to a stop.”
Trump will also urge NATO allies to increase their defense spending, the official said. “He will deliver that message in person,” the official said.
Defense-related deals worth billions of dollars will be announced during the summit, the official said, without providing details.
European officials say they hope Trump’s strong relationships with Erdogan and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will ensure a smooth summit. But the Europeans remain uncertain because of lingering transatlantic bitterness over the Iran war and the U.S. president’s frequent criticism of NATO.
Trump has complained that NATO members have not done more to help the United States in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
On Saturday, the U.S. leader spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for 90 minutes and offered to help find a solution to the Ukraine war, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said in comments made public early on Sunday.
Trump in the past has lamented the amount of death and destruction on both sides of the conflict. Ukraine in recent months has managed to slow or halt Russian advances and put more pressure on Putin.
The senior U.S. official said Trump would likely follow up with Putin after talking to Zelenskiy.
Zelenskiy last month called for a one-on-one meeting with Putin, but the Kremlin leader refused.
Russia has said any solution must include Moscow assuming full control over Ukraine’s Donbas region. Ukraine rejects that assertion.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Gram Slattery; additional writing by Susan Heavey; editing by Will Dunham, Sergio Non, Bill Berkrot and Jonathan Oatis)
