President Trump is heading to Alaska Friday for a gathering with Russian president Vladimir Putin in hopes of forging peace between Russia and Ukraine.
After famously vowing to finish the conflict in a single day, Trump is rolling the cube on a high-stakes face-to-face summit with Putin that he hopes can unlock a breakthrough after almost seven months in workplace.
Even Trump admits he doesn’t know what to anticipate, a disturbing signal on condition that sitting down with Putin is in itself a significant concession to the Kremlin strongman.
“This is a feeling-out meeting, a little bit,” Trump mentioned. “I’m going to see what he has in mind.”
Right here’s 5 issues to know concerning the historic Alaska summit:
Why are the 2 leaders assembly?
After 3-1/2 years of conflict, Trump is playing that Russia is lastly prepared to finish its invasion of Ukraine, or at the least take the very best deal it may possibly get.
Trump returned to the White Home in January on a mission to shake up the U.S. strategy to the battle. After former President Biden steadfastly backed Ukraine, Trump dramatically broke with Kyiv and berated Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an Oval Workplace meltdown.
The president additionally made concessions to Russia by agreeing that Ukraine ought to have to surrender on its hopes of becoming a member of NATO and, extra controversially, should quit huge swathes of its nation to win peace.
Via all of it, Putin has not budged, even snubbing Trump’s demand that each side conform to an unconditional ceasefire.
In latest weeks, Trump has appeared more and more exasperated with Putin, particularly over Russia’s escalating aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities and different civilian targets.
However it stays to be seen if Trump’s shift in tone interprets to any actual stress on Putin to vary course.
Why now?
The White Home says Putin advised the summit with Trump at a “productive” three-hour assembly final week with particular envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow.
However it’s unclear what if any concessions the Kremlin chief could have made to persuade Trump to green-light the high-stakes assembly.
The president already largely delayed the “secondary sanctions” he threatened to impose on nations that purchase Russian oil if Putin didn’t conform to a ceasefire or peace talks with Ukraine.
Why Alaska?
The summit will happen in Alaska, however the precise website hasn’t but been disclosed.
Earlier conferences between presidents and overseas leaders within the forty ninth state happened at airports just like the Anchorage Worldwide Airport whereas China’s Xi Jinping stayed on the metropolis’s Captain Cook dinner Lodge throughout his 2021 journey dwelling after a summit in Florida with Trump.
It is going to be Putin’s first journey to america since 2015. The Russian chief was hit with a warrant on conflict crimes accusations by the Worldwide Felony Courtroom in 2023, forcing him to keep away from international locations which might be events to the courtroom. However the U.S. shouldn’t be a celebration, which means it gained’t be beneath any obligation to arrest him.
Will Ukraine have a seat on the desk?
It’s nonetheless to be decided whether or not Zelenskyy will present up, nevertheless it appears most unlikely.
Putin has beforehand dominated out a face-to-face assembly along with his Ukrainian counterpart, whom he derides as a Western stooge or worse.
The Kremlin chief mentioned final week he may think about assembly Zelenskyy “but certain conditions need to be created” for it to occur.
Trump himself has mentioned he plans to make use of the assembly to find out if Putin is severe about peace, with a attainable three-way assembly together with Zelenskyy to comply with quickly afterward.
What are the probabilities of peace?
That’s the million-ruble query, however the odds for a breakthrough look like slim.
Putin has overseen vital Russian positive aspects on the battlefield previously yr or so. Trump’s unwillingness to strongly again Ukraine has handed him a significant diplomatic benefit, too.
So, there may be little cause to suppose the Russian chief would pull the plug on a successful technique particularly when he could imagine Trump lacks the fortitude to face as much as him.
Putin may even see the summit itself as an opportunity to burnish his picture on the worldwide stage whereas searching for to cement Russian stances on annexing occupied parts of Ukraine and conserving Ukraine out of NATO.
Ukraine and its European allies are frightened Putin could reach sweet-talking Trump into signing up for its one-sided imaginative and prescient for ending the conflict, leaving Kyiv out within the chilly.
NATO Secretary Basic Mark Rutte hopefully mentioned Sunday he believed Trump would make a great religion effort to see if Putin is severe about compromise and, if he’s, then the talks will transfer ahead to incorporate Zelenskyy.
“If he is not,” Rutte mentioned, “then it will stop there.”
Initially Revealed: August 12, 2025 at 10:01 AM EDT
