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Trump-Putin Alaska summit to be a 'listening exercise,' White House says

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Trump-Putin Alaska summit to be a 'listening exercise,' White House says
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt takes a question from a reporter during the daily press briefing at the White House on Aug. 12, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

The Aug. 15 meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage will be a "listening exercise," for Trump, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Aug. 12.

The summit, set to be held in Alaska's largest city, will mark Putin's first visit to the U.S. in a decade and their first face-to-face meeting with Trump since the U.S. president took office on Jan. 20.

"This is a listening exercise for President (Trump)," Leavitt said, indicating that the talks might not produce immediate results, and adding that one-on-one discussions are "part of the plan."

The Trump administration has promoted the meeting as a breakthrough in the peace process, though Ukrainian and European officials remain wary of negotiations that exclude Kyiv. Trump himself described the talks as a "feel-out meeting" to assess Russia's readiness for peace.

The U.S. president announced the summit on Aug. 8, reportedly telling Ukrainian and European leaders that Moscow may be open to negotiations if "land swaps" are included.

A Ukrainian Presidential Office source told the Kyiv Independent that the Kremlin's proposal would require Kyiv to withdraw from partially occupied Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in exchange for a Russian pullback from parts of Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts.

Putin has also publicly demanded Ukraine's withdrawal from partially occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts and a ban on its NATO membership as preconditions for peace.

Moscow reiterated these demands during the May Istanbul peace talks and again in the July 3rd round of talks, which wrapped up in less than an hour.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected handing over of any new territory, urging a ceasefire as the first step toward negotiations, a stance supported by Kyiv's European partners.

The Ukrainian president is scheduled to hold an online meeting with Trump and European leaders on Aug. 13, two days before the Alaska summit.

Breakthrough unlikely at Putin-Trump meeting as US, Russia, Ukraine differ on key issues
As U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, prepare for a bilateral meeting on Aug. 15 in Alaska, the aims of the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine appear to contradict each other. “At the end of that meeting, probably in the first two minutes, I’ll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made,” Trump told reporters on Aug. 11. Experts say the hastily organized summit will most likely fail to bring Trump, Putin, and President Volodymyr Zelensky to an agreement on a fu
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Tim Zadorozhnyy

News Editor

Tim Zadorozhnyy is a news editor at The Kyiv Independent. Based in Warsaw, he is pursuing studies in International Relations, focusing on European Studies. Tim began his career at a local television channel in Odesa. After moving to Warsaw, he joined the Belarusian opposition media outlet NEXTA, starting as a news anchor and later advancing to the position of managing editor.

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