Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is returning to the White House, where he will be briefed on President Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

At what was billed as an “historic” presidential summit, hastily put together in Alaska on Friday afternoon, the optics were as clear and overshadowing as the vast Chugach mountains glistening over Anchorage in the summer sun.

US President Donald Trump is briefing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders about his summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin, German government sources told dpa on Saturday morning.

Volodymyr Zelensky has given Donald Trump a letter to pass on to Melania Trump from his wife. The Ukrainian president arrived in Washington, DC for talks on ending the ongoing war with the US president on Monday (18 August) , with other world leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, also in attendance.

White House officials argued the Friday summit with Putin was a welcome door opening after Biden pushed U.S.-Russia relations to a new low.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called a series of overnight Russian strikes "demonstrative and cynical," hours before he is set to meet President Donald Trump in Washington. His comments came after a drone attack on an apartment block in Kharkiv killed seven people and multiple other strikes hit Zaporizhzhia, Odesa and other regions.

In Alaska, the Russian leader proposed that Ukraine hand over the remainder of the Donbas region to Moscow to stop the fighting.