Trump to Meet Zelensky and Ahmed al-Sharaa at NATO Summit

US President Donald Trump will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Turkey. The meetings are intended to address two major ongoing conflicts.

“On Wednesday afternoon, President Trump will participate in bilateral meetings with President Zelensky of Ukraine and President al-Sharaa of the Syrian Arab Republic,” Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a conference call with reporters, as reported by AFP on Monday.

Trump’s meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky in Ankara comes amid intensifying efforts to end the nearly stalemated Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began almost four and a half years ago. Trump will discuss ways to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

“The President will clearly meet with him to talk about how we can end the war. That has been a priority for him for a long time,” a senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, added regarding the meeting with Zelensky.

“Trump will follow up with Russian President Vladimir Putin afterwards,” the official continued.

Meanwhile, the meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa follows Trump’s repeated suggestions that Damascus could become militarily involved in Lebanon, where Israel and Hezbollah are at war. However, al-Sharaa, who was hosted by Trump at the White House last year, denied in June that his country was seeking military intervention in Lebanon, stating that he sought “economic channels between Lebanon and Syria, not military channels.”