US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to meet in Alaska on August 15, for talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
It’ll be their first sit-down since Trump’s second term began, and Putin’s first trip to the US in about ten years.
Alaska makes sense for a couple reasons, it’s close to Russia, and the US isn’t part of the International Criminal Court, which has an arrest warrant out for Putin.
The big aim of the summit is to try and hammer out a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, easily one of the toughest diplomatic puzzles in years.
Trump says he’s “cautiously optimistic,” telling reporters he thinks “we have a shot” at making peace.
Trump also dropped a vague hint that a deal could mean trading pieces of land between the two countries, but he didn’t say exactly how that might work.
That idea’s already ruffling feathers, Zelenskyy’s been crystal clear he’s not signing off on anything that leaves Ukraine out of the room or makes it give up land.
What is expected from Trump-Putin meeting?
The Trump team has been pushing Putin to agree to a ceasefire by an August 8 deadline, warning that if he doesn’t, Russia will get hit with tougher economic sanctions and countries still doing business with Moscow could get caught in the crossfire too.
Trump’s been openly frustrated about the ongoing Russian strikes in Ukraine, but the Alaska summit is being framed as a chance to find some middle ground.
He’s been saying both Putin and Zelenskyy want peace, even if the road there looks bumpy.
From Moscow’s side, the talk is that Russia might consider a ceasefire if Ukraine pulls its troops out of parts of eastern Ukraine, including areas Russia claims it’s annexed.
That came out after US envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow, where the message was basically: “We might be open to this, but only on our terms.”
Still, a lot of European and Ukrainian officials aren’t buying it.
They point to Russia’s track record of keeping up the fighting even while talking peace and its insistence that Ukraine drop any plans to join NATO as reasons this summit could easily end without a real deal.
Historic optics meet high-stakes diplomacy
There’s also a lot of symbolism wrapped up in this summit. For Putin, just sitting down with a US President on American soil, after years of being shut out over the Ukraine war is already a win.
For Trump, bringing Putin here plays into his image of doing diplomacy face-to-face and pushing for peace on his own terms.
The fact that it’s happening in Alaska adds a little history to the mix too, since the US bought it from Russia back in 1867.
The meeting had been on the table earlier but got pushed back thanks to security concerns and all the moving parts needed to pull it off.
Now, both sides say it’s officially happening. Trump’s even floated the idea of following it up with a three-way sit-down with Zelenskyy, but right now, that’s more of a “maybe someday” than a done deal.
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