US President Donald Trump said he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on August 15 to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. The “highly anticipated meeting” was confirmed by Trump in a post on Truth Social on Friday.
“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. Further details to follow,” Trump wrote.
The Kremlin later confirmed the summit, according to Reuters, with aide Yuri Ushakov saying the leaders would “focus on discussing options for achieving a long-term peaceful resolution to the Ukrainian crisis” and acknowledged it would be a “challenging process.”
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Speaking to reporters at the White House earlier on Friday, Trump said all parties, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, were close to a ceasefire deal, though it could involve Ukraine giving up some territory. “There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both,” he said as per Reuters, without offering specifics.
Russian President Putin claims four Ukrainian regions — Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — along with Crimea, annexed in 2014. His forces do not fully control all of the claimed regions. Earlier, Bloomberg News reported US and Russian officials were working toward an agreement that could cement Moscow’s hold on occupied territory. A White House official dismissed that report as speculation.
In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said a ceasefire was possible if enough pressure was applied to Russia. He noted his team was in constant contact with the US and that he had spoken with leaders of over a dozen countries.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, after meeting Zelenskyy, told reporters there were “hopes” for at least a freeze in the fighting, though Kyiv remained “very cautious but optimistic.”
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Fighting continues
The Associated Press (AP) reported Ukrainian forces remain engaged in heavy battles along a 1,000-kilometre front. The eastern Donetsk region’s Pokrovsk area is facing some of the fiercest attacks as Russian forces push toward Dnipropetrovsk.
Commanders on the ground told AP they did not believe Moscow was ready for genuine peace talks. “It is impossible to negotiate with them. The only option is to defeat them,” said Buda, a drone unit commander in the Spartan Brigade.
In the south, a howitzer commander using the call sign Warsaw added, “We are on our land, we have no way out. So we stand our ground, we have no choice.”
(With inputs from AP, Reuters)
