The White House and Kremlin confirmed that today’s planned one-on-one meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage will now be a three-on-three session.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would be joined by the US secretary of state and his special envoy for the talks.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that Putin would be accompanied by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov.
Who will be in the room
The change means that when the leaders sit down at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, they will each have two senior officials alongside them. Lavrov and Ushakov have both participated in previous high-level US-Russia engagements, including the first in-person talks between the two governments earlier this year.
On the US side, the addition of the secretary of state and a special envoy brings more diplomatic weight to the meeting, which comes as Trump has set a goal of arranging a trilateral summit with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “almost immediately.”
Broader discussions planned over lunch
Following the smaller-format talks, the leaders are scheduled to take part in a working lunch with an expanded roster of participants. According to the White House, the US side will include Senators Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
Context heading into the talks
Trump has said he will “walk real fast” if the talks do not go well, and has warned of “severe” economic consequences for Russia if there is no movement toward ending the war in Ukraine. Zelensky, who is not part of today’s discussions, has said Ukraine is “counting on America” and reiterated that Kyiv will not agree to any ceasefire that cedes territory to Moscow.
The shift to a 3-on-3 format ensures key diplomatic and policy advisers will be present from the start, a decision confirmed on the record by both Washington and Moscow.
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