Trump and Putin to meet in Alaska for Ukraine war talks
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are set to meet at a US air base in Alaska for high-stakes talks on the Ukraine war, marking Putin’s first visit to the US in a decade.
Expectations run high for the first summit between sitting US and Russian presidents in over four years, yet Moscow and Kyiv remain deeply divided over how to resolve the conflict.
This summit marks Putin’s first visit to a Western country since launching his invasion in February 2022 and his first trip to the US in a decade. For Putin, who has endured years of Western isolation following the invasion, the meeting presents a chance to push Russia’s firm demands for ending the war.
In a draft peace plan released in June, Russia demanded that Ukraine withdraw its forces from the Kherson, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk regions — areas Moscow claims to have annexed in 2022. Ukraine has dismissed this proposal.
Russia has also insisted that Ukraine cease military mobilisation, abandon its NATO aspirations, and that Western countries immediately halt arms supplies — demands critics argue are tantamount to surrender.
Besides territorial issues, Russia seeks guarantees for the “rights and freedoms” of the Russian-speaking population and wants to outlaw what it terms the “glorification of Nazism.” Russia further demands the lifting of Western sanctions.
Ukraine counters that Russia’s accusations of Nazism are “absurd” and insists it already protects the rights of Russian speakers. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not scheduled to attend the summit but has stated that “there can be no peace deal without its involvement,” calling the meeting a “personal victory” for Putin.
Kyiv insists on an unconditional ceasefire across land, sea, and sky as a condition for peace talks. It demands the release of all prisoners of war and the return of Ukrainian children whom it claims Russia has “illegally kidnapped.”
Ukraine alleges that Russia has forcibly transferred thousands of Ukrainian children into territories it controls since the conflict began, with many being adopted into Russian families and granted Russian citizenship. While Russia denies the kidnapping charges, it admits that thousands of children are currently on its soil.
Ukraine maintains that any agreement must include security guarantees to prevent future Russian attacks and stipulates that it should face no limits on the number of troops it can station within its borders.