'Alaska opposes tyranny!' — Pro-Ukraine rally planned ahead of Trump-Putin summit in US
Stand Up Alaska NGO plans to hold a protest ahead of the upcoming meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the northwestern U.S. state, according to an Aug. 11 statement.
As Washington seeks a path to end the war in Ukraine, the upcoming Aug. 15 meeting between Trump and Putin will mark their first face-to-face talks since the start of Trump's second term.
"We're here to tell Trump and Putin: Alaska opposes tyranny!" Stand Up Alaska's statement read.
The rally, scheduled for Aug. 14 in Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, is being held to protest the "presence of an international war criminal" and as a show of solidarity with Ukraine, the NGO said.
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy previously said the state was prepared to host the upcoming meeting between Trump and Putin, calling the event "historic."
"Alaska is the most strategic location in the world, sitting at the crossroads of North America and Asia, with the Arctic to our north and the Pacific to our south," Dunvealy wrote on X on Aug. 9.
"With a mere two miles separating Russia from Alaska, no other place plays a more vital role in our national defense, energy security, and Arctic leadership," he added.
Trump announced the summit with Putin on Aug. 8 and reportedly told Ukraine and European leaders that the Kremlin is open to negotiations if "land swaps" are part of the deal.
Though it remains unclear what such a deal would entail, a source in Ukraine's Presidential Office told the Kyiv Independent that Moscow seeks Kyiv's full withdrawal from partially occupied Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in the east while offering to withdraw its forces from the limited areas it holds in the northeastern Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts.
Publicly, Putin has demanded a ban on Ukraine's NATO membership and a full Ukrainian withdrawal from partially occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts as a precondition for peace talks.
In turn, Zelensky has rejected formally ceding territory to Russia and urged a ceasefire as the first step toward peace talks, a position backed by Kyiv's European partners.
Zelensky is also expected to hold talks with European leaders and Trump two days before the summit in Alaska, on Aug. 13.
