White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt said the previously planned face-to-face meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin will now be a three-on-three meeting, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Whitkoff attending from the US side.
Rubio, Whitkoff, as well as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Defence Secretary Pete Hagseth and Trump’s chief of staff Suzy Wiles will also attend the lunch after the meeting.
US President Donald Trump’s plane landed at a military base in Alaska around 10: 20 local time. Putin’s plane has also already landed.
The leaders’ summit is due to start soon. According to the schedule, the meeting should start at 11 am local time (at 22 hours Kiev) at the military base “Elmendorf-Richardson”.
Earlier it was reported that the presidents will first meet one-on-one only in the presence of interpreters.
Although Trump and Putin have spoken by phone at least five times since January, the 15 August meeting, which will take place at a military base near Anchorage, will be their first face-to-face meeting in Trump’s second term and the first meeting between a Russian leader and a sitting US president since 2021.
The day before, US President Donald Trump said the purpose of the 15 August summit in Alaska was to prepare a second possible meeting, which the US president admits could also be held in Alaska “very soon”. We are talking about a meeting involving both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin. It would, according to Trump, be more important than his summit with Putin.
Trump suggested that there is a 25 per cent chance that his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska will not be successful.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not taking part in the meeting of the US and Russian presidents in Alaska. Earlier, Zelensky said that Ukraine was not going to “give its land to anyone,” and the AFU itself will not leave Donbass. Kiev insists on firm security guarantees in case of any agreements with Russia