Trump, Putin to meet in Alaska on Aug. 15 for peace talks
Editor's note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Aug. 8 that he will hold a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15.
"The highly anticipated meeting between myself, as President of the United States of America, and President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, will take place next Friday, August 15, 2025, in the Great State of Alaska," Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that "further details will follow."
Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, also confirmed that Putin would attend the meeting on U.S. territory, adding that Moscow expects Trump to attend subsequent summits with Putin in Russia.
It was not immediately clear as to whether President Volodymyr Zelensky will participate in the meeting or subsequent meetings that day. The details or exact timing of the meeting remain unclear.
Earlier reports indicated that Trump would agree to meet with Putin only if Putin also met with President Volodymyr Zelensky. Later, however, Trump told reporters at the White House that such a meeting between Zelensky and Putin was not a prerequisite for his own meeting with Putin.
The scheduled meeting will mark the first in-person interaction between Trump and Putin since the start of Trump's second term in office. Putin last met the U.S. president during Trump's first term in office during the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan.
The high-stakes meeting will be the first between the leaders of Washington and Moscow since former U.S. President Joe Biden held a summit in Geneva with Putin in June 2021, ahead of Russia launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The location for the meeting comes as a surprise, with both parties previously proposing more neutral settings for the meeting.
Sky News reported on Aug. 8, citing sources in the Italian government, that Trump held a call with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, speaking about the possibilities of holding the meeting in Rome. Putin previously suggested holding the summit in the United Arab Emirates during a visit to the region.
The planned meeting comes just days after a meeting between Putin and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff on Aug. 6, just two days before Trump's deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine.
As the prospects for leader-level peace talks grow, Trump in recent days has suggested the warring parties must conduct "some swapping of territories" in exchange for peace.
"Well you're looking at territory that's been fought over for three-and-a-half years... So we're looking at that but we're actually looking to get some back," Trump said during a press conference on Aug. 8. "Some swapping, it's complicated."
"We're going to get some back. We're going to get some switched. There will be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both," Trump added.
Trump did not specify what he meant by "swapping," though it possibly referred to Crimea — illegally annexed in 2014 — and parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts. Russia declared the annexation of the latter four regions, which are partially occupied by Russia, in 2022 following sham referenda.
Trump told European leaders and Zelensky that Putin is open to negotiations if land swaps are included in the talks, Bloomberg reported on Aug. 7, citing its undisclosed sources.
Bloomberg later reported on Aug. 8 that the U.S. and Russia are seeking to reach a territorial agreement to cement Moscow's occupation of Ukrainian territories and end the war.
The proposed deal is aimed at freezing the conflict and laying the groundwork for a ceasefire and technical negotiations toward a final peace settlement, the news agency reported, with Putin demanding that Ukraine cede all of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, as well as Crimea.
Ukraine's Presidential Office has not yet commented on Trump's comments on swapping territory or about Zelensky's potential presence at the meeting.
In his evening address, issued before the announcement of the meeting, Zelensky said that Ukraine is "continuing our active negotiations with partners to reach a common position for a reliable peace for Ukraine. A truly genuine peace," criticizing Moscow for continuously rejecting a proposed ceasefire.
"So far, we see that the Russians are ignoring (a ceasefire) – at least for now," Zelensky added.
