Trump to meet Ukraine’s Zelensky and Syria’s Sharaa during Nato summit in Turkey

US President Donald Trump plans to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on Wednesday while attending the Nato summit in Turkey, the White House said.

Those discussions will come as Kyiv tries to refocus Trump’s attention on the conflict with Moscow and as Trump has publicly mused about Syria’s role in the Middle East.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly confirmed the meetings in a call with reporters while previewing the summit in Ankara, where Trump also plans to meet Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday. Before returning to the United States on Wednesday, Trump is scheduled to have a news conference, Kelly said.

Trump’s meeting with Zelensky comes as Russia’s war in Ukraine is now in its fifth year. Both Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin held phone calls with Trump on Saturday, congratulating him on the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of American independence.

Zelensky said in a statement on social media after his call that he and Trump spoke about the situation on the front lines of the war, where analysts say Russian advances have sputtered. Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Moscow and demonstrated its ability to strike deeper into Russia.

The Ukrainian leader said there is “a real prospect of ending this war”, and that conversation would continue at the Nato summit in Ankara.