WASHINGTON, USA — US President Donald Trump has confirmed he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, August 15, 2025, in Alaska to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, raising the prospect of a controversial “swapping” of territory as part of any peace deal.
Speaking at the White House on Friday, August 8, 2025, while hosting leaders from Armenia and Azerbaijan, Trump said the meeting would “start off with Russia” but offered few details on progress in his months-long effort to broker an agreement.
“It’s very complicated. But we’re going to get some back, and we’re going to get some switched. There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both, but we’ll be talking about that either later or tomorrow,” he said.
The remarks immediately reignited concerns in Kyiv and across Europe, where leaders have consistently opposed any settlement that would involve Ukraine ceding occupied territory — including Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia — to Russia.
Moscow, however, has maintained that a deal must include Ukrainian concessions on territory, an end to Western military support, and the abandonment of NATO membership ambitions.
The Kremlin had previously floated holding talks in the United Arab Emirates, but Trump announced on Truth Social that the summit would take place in Alaska, the US state closest to Russia across the Bering Strait.
The choice sidesteps potential complications from an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Putin, as the US is not an ICC member.
The planned meeting will be the first direct encounter between the two leaders since 2019.
Trump’s earlier overtures to Putin during his first term broke with decades of US diplomatic precedent, though in recent months he has voiced frustration over Russia’s continued attacks on Ukraine.
Friday’s announcement coincided with the passing of a Trump-imposed deadline for a ceasefire, which expired without agreement.
In recent weeks, he has threatened new sanctions and tariffs on countries trading with Russia, including a 50 percent tariff on Indian goods in response to its purchase of Russian oil.
While Trump has described himself as a “peacemaker,” analysts question whether his shifting approach — at times permissive, at times confrontational — has meaningfully changed the prospects for a ceasefire.
Some believe Putin is prolonging negotiations to extend the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 after its annexation of Crimea in 2014.
