Russia-Ukraine war: Trump departs for Alaska to meet Putin

United States President Donald Trump has departed for Alaska to meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine.

Trump and Putin meet at a Cold War-era air force base in Alaska on Friday, August 15, 2025, to discuss a ceasefire deal for Ukraine.

The United States sees the ceasefire deal as a possible way to end the deadliest war in Europe since World War Two.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was not invited to the talks, and his European allies fear Trump might sell out Ukraine by essentially freezing the conflict and recognising, if only informally, Russian control over one-fifth of Ukraine.

Both Trump and Putin are seeking wins from their first face-to-face talks since Trump returned to the White House.

Trump, who casts the war as a “bloodbath” fraught with escalatory risk, is pressing for a truce in the 3-1/2-year-old war that would bolster his credentials as a global peacemaker worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.

For Putin, the summit is already a big win as he can use it to say that years of Western attempts to isolate Russia have unravelled and that Moscow has retaken its rightful place at the top table of international diplomacy.

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The summit, the first between a U.S. and Russian leader since 2021, will begin at 11 a.m. Alaska time (1900 GMT).

Trump, who once said he would end Russia’s war in Ukraine within 24 hours, conceded on Thursday it had proven a tougher nut to crack than he had thought.

The president said that if Friday’s talks went well, quickly setting up a subsequent three-way summit with Zelensky would be even more important than his encounter with Putin.

One source acquainted with Kremlin thinking said there were signs that Russia could be ready to strike a compromise on Ukraine, given that Putin understood Russia’s economic vulnerability and costs of continuing the war.

Reuters had reported that Putin might be willing to freeze the conflict along the front lines, provided there was a legally binding pledge not to enlarge NATO eastwards and to lift some Western sanctions.

The Star