U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in Alaska on Friday, 15 August 2025 to discuss a potential peace deal to end the war in Ukraine. Trump announced the meeting on social media; it was later confirmed by a Kremlin spokesperson.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said any solutions must include Ukraine, adding he is ready to work with all partners towards a “lasting peace”.
The announcement of the meeting came just hours after Trump had signalled that Ukraine might have to cede territory in order to end the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
According to CBS, citing sources, White House is trying to convince European leaders to accept an agreement that would include Russia taking Donbas region in eastern Ukraine and keeping Crimea. It would give up the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, which it partially occupies, as part of the proposed agreement, CBS reports. Wall Street Journal says that Putin had proposed a similar arrangement to Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff during a recent meeting in Moscow.
It remains unclear whether Ukraine and European allies would agree to such a deal, given Zelensky and Putin are far apart on the conditions for peace. Zelensky has previously rejected any preconditions for territorial concessions.
A White House official told CBS that the planning for next Friday’s meeting was fluid, and it was still possible that Zelensky would be involved in some capacity.
Moscow has not achieved a decisive breakthrough in its full-scale invasion, but occupies around 20% of Ukraine’s territory. Ukrainian offensives, meanwhile, have not pushed the Russian forces back.
Three rounds of direct talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul have yielded little, and Moscow’s military and political preconditions for peace are seen by Kyiv and its allies as de facto capitulation of Ukraine.
Russian demands include Ukraine becoming a neutral state, drastically reducing its military, abandoning NATO aspirations, and lifting of Western sanctions on Russia. Russia wants Ukraine to withdraw its troops from the four regions which Russia partially occupies in south-east Ukraine, and to demobilise its soldiers.
On Saturday, Zelensky wrote on Telegram: “The answer to the Ukrainian territorial issue is already in the Constitution of Ukraine… Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.”
The Ukrainian President’s rejection of ceding land reflects the real dilemma of a commander-in-chief trying to manage the anger of his military and the deep-seated distrust of the Ukrainian people towards their neighbor, who continues to bombard their cities nightly, says CNN.
Trump mentioned the possibility of “swapping territory”. What could Ukraine get back in the so-called “swap”? Perhaps the tiny slivers of border areas occupied by Russia in Sumy and Kharkiv regions – part of Putin’s purported “buffer zone” – but not much else, realistically, according to CNN.
The main goal seems to be a ceasefire. Putin has long held that the immediate ceasefire demanded by the US, Europe and Ukraine, is impossible as technical work about monitoring and logistics must take place first. He is unlikely to have changed his mind now that his troops are in the ascendancy across the frontline, opines CNN.
Trump has hardened his stance against Russia in recent weeks, imposing a deadline of Friday, 08 August for Russia to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine or face sweeping sanctions. The economic threat is now overshadowed by the planned Trump-Putin meet to discuss a potential peace deal. There was no announcement of further sanctions on Russia from the US till Friday.
The last time a US president met Putin was in 2021, when Joe Biden met him at a summit in Geneva, Switzerland.
Disclaimer: The article has reference to open sources including BBC, CBS, CNN and Al Jazeera.
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