US and Russian Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on 15 August began talks in Anchorage, Alaska, aimed at ending Russian Federation’s military action in Ukraine, according to the US leader.
The two leaders made no statements or answered questions ahead of the talks, which are being held in private.
Earlier today, Trump and Putin’s planes landed at Elmendorf-Richardson military airfield in Alaska. Trump met Putin in person and they shook hands, neither made any comments to the media.
At first it was reported that the presidents would meet one-on-one only in the presence of interpreters. Then the White House said that the format of the meeting had been changed and Trump would be joined at the talks immediately by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff. Putin will be accompanied by his aide Yuri Ushakov and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The White House did not specify why the format of the meeting was changed.
It is planned that the presidents will hold a joint press conference after the meeting. However, Trump said the day before that he would go to the media separately if the meeting does not go as he expects.
Although Trump and Putin have spoken by phone at least five times since January, the meeting on 15 August, 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 that the purpose of the Alaska summit on 15 August 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.
On the plane en route to the meeting, when asked about the possibility of a “land swap” as part of an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, Trump said, “they will be discussed, but I have to let Ukraine make that decision… I’m not here to negotiate for Ukraine. I’m here to put them at the negotiating table.”