Air Force: Ukraine downs Russian Su-34 aircraft

The two leaders began their meeting at the U.S. military Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage at around 11:30 a.m. local time. The event will mark their first face-to-face talks of Trump's second term and their first meeting in six years, as well as Putin's first visit to U.S. soil in a decade.

Nearly half of the active Starlink satellite terminals that USAID delivered to Ukraine were present in territories fully or partially occupied by Russia, raising concerns about potential misuse, according to a U.S. Inspector General report.

The Kyiv Independent visited the front-line city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk Oblast to hear from its residents what they think about the prospects of land swaps between Ukraine and Russia ahead of the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska.

"The enemy struck civilian infrastructure in the central part of Sumy," Governor Oleh Hryhorov said.

The corps claimed that Ukrainian units are operating inside the city, and civilians can move about, though travel within Pokrovsk remains heavily restricted. It is still possible to reach the city, the statement added.

Russian officials have not named the cause of the explosion, but preliminary accounts reported by Russian media point to possible safety violations in the workshop.

"This is a Russian tactic before any negotiations," Alina Alekseeva, the deputy head of Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation, told the Kyiv Independent.

The Elysee Palace described the dialogue between the two leaders as "close and constant," but did not provide a specific date or location for the follow-up meeting.

Beka Museum urged immediate action, highlighting Russian President Vladimir Putin's role in the forced deportation of Ukrainian children and other atrocities committed under his rule.

The issue concerns refugees who have lived in the country since Aug. 16, 2023, under the Uniting for Ukraine program, devised by the Biden administration to allow Ukrainians to stay in the country on humanitarian parole.