Donald Trump
Trump heads to 'high stakes' Alaska summit with Putin on Ukraine
Sanjeewa Rathnayaka
15-Aug-2025 21:01:44
Donald Trump headed to Alaska on Friday for what he called a "high stakes" summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin to discuss a ceasefire deal for Ukraine to help end the deadliest war in Europe since World War Two.
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE/MOSCOW, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Donald Trump headed to Alaska on Friday for what he called a "high stakes" summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin to discuss a ceasefire deal for Ukraine to help end the deadliest war in Europe since World War Two.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, 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.
Trump sought to assuage such concerns as he boarded Air Force One, saying he would let Ukraine decide on any possible territorial swaps. "I'm not here to negotiate for Ukraine, I'm here to get them at a table," he said.
Both the U.S. and Russian presidents, due to meet at a Cold War-era air force base in Alaska's largest city, 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.
In a symbolic gesture en route for Alaska, Putin laid flowers on Friday at a memorial in Russia's Far East commemorating U.S.-Soviet cooperation in World War Two. The Kremlin said Putin would arrive in Alaska at 11 a.m. (1900 GMT) and that Trump would meet the Russian leader at his plane.
Trump, who once said he would end Russia's war in Ukraine within 24 hours, conceded on Thursday it had proven a tougher task than he had expected. He said that if Friday's talks went well, quickly arranging a second three-way summit with Zelenskiy would be even more important than his encounter with Putin.
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