
Trump says he’ll meet Putin next Friday in Alaska to discuss Ukraine war’s end and predicts ‘some swapping of territories’
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Prior to his announcing the meeting with Putin, Trump’s efforts to pressure Russia into stopping the fighting have so far delivered no progress.
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August 8, 2025
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·Donald TrumpEuropeTrump says he’ll meet Putin next Friday in Alaska to discuss Ukraine war’s end and predicts ‘some swapping of territories’By Will WeissertBy Vasilisa StepanenkoBy The Associated PressBy Will WeissertBy Vasilisa StepanenkoBy The Associated Press President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on July 16, 2018.Brendan Smialowski—AFP via Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump said Friday that he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next Friday in Alaska to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, a potential major milestone after expressing weeks of frustration that more was not being done to quell the fighting
Speaking to reporters at the White House after announcing a framework aimed at ending decades of conflict elsewhere in the world — between Armenia and Azerbaijan — Trump refused to say exactly when or where he would meet with Putin, but that he planned to announce a location soon
Later on social media, he announced what he called “the highly anticipated meeting” would happen Aug. 15 in Alaska
He said more details would
The Kremlin has not yet confirmed the details
He suggested earlier Friday that his meeting with the Russian leader could come before any sit-down discussion involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “We’re going to have a meeting with Russia, start off with Russia
And we’ll announce a location
I think the location will be a very one,” Trump said
He added: “It would have been sooner, but I guess there’s security arrangements that unfortunately people have to make
Otherwise I’d do it much quicker
He’d to meet as soon as possible
But we’ll be announcing that very shortly.” If it happens, the meeting would be the first U.S.-Russia summit since 2021, when former President Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva
It could mean a breakthrough in Trump’s effort to end the war, although there’s no guarantee it would stop the fighting since Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on their conditions for peace
Still, Trump said, “President Putin, I believe, wants to see peace, and Zelenskyy wants to see peace.” He said that, “In all fairness to President Zelenskyy, he’s getting everything he needs to, assuming we get something done.” Trump also said that a peace deal would ly mean “there will be some swapping of territories” between Ukraine and Russia but didn’t vide further details
Trump said of territory generally “we’re looking to get some back and some swapping
It’s complicated.” “Nothing easy,” the president said. “But we’re gonna get some back
We’re gonna get some switched
There’ll be some swapping of territories, to the betterment of both.” Analysts, including some close to the Kremlin, have suggested that Russia could offer to give up territory it controls outside of the four regions it claims to have annexed
Pressed on if this was the last chance to make a major peace deal, Trump said, “I don’t using the term last chance,” and said that, “When those guns start going off, it’s awfully tough to get ’em to stop.” Exasperated that Putin did not heed his calls to stop bombing Ukrainian cities, Trump almost two weeks ago moved up his ultimatum to impose additional sanctions on Russia and introduce secondary tariffs targeting countries that buy Russian oil if the Kremlin did not move toward a settlement
The deadline was Friday
Prior to his announcing the meeting with Putin, Trump’s efforts to pressure Russia into stopping the fighting have so far dered no gress
The Kremlin’s bigger army is slowly advancing deeper into Ukraine at great cost in troops and armor while it relentlessly bombards Ukrainian cities
Russia and Ukraine are far apart on their terms for peace
Ukrainian troops say they are ready to keep fighting Ukrainian forces are locked in intense battles along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line that snakes from northeast to southeast Ukraine
The Pokrovsk area of the eastern Donetsk region is taking the brunt of punishment as Russia seeks to break out into the neighboring Dnipetrovsk region
Ukraine has significant manpower shortages
Intense fighting is also taking place in Ukraine’s northern Sumy border region, where Ukrainian forces are engaging Russian soldiers to prevent reinforcements being sent from there to Donetsk
In the Pokrovsk area of Donetsk, a commander said he believes Moscow isn’t interested in peace. “It is impossible to negotiate with them
The only option is to defeat them,” Buda, a commander of a drone unit in the Spartan Brigade, told The Associated Press
He used only his call sign, in keeping with the rules of the Ukrainian military. “I would them to agree and for all this to stop, but Russia will not agree to that
It does not want to negotiate
So the only option is to defeat them,” he said
In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, a howitzer commander using the call sign Warsaw, said troops are determined to thwart Russia’s invasion. “We are on our land, we have no way out,” he said. “So we stand our ground, we have no choice.” Putin makes a flurry of phone calls The Kremlin said Friday that Putin had a phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, during which the Russian leader informed Xi the results of his meeting earlier this week with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff
Kremlin officials said Xi “expressed support for the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis on a long-term basis.” Putin is due to visit China next month
China, along with North Korea and Iran, have vided military support for Russia’s war effort, the U.S. says
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X that he also had a call with Putin to speak the Ukraine developments
Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to place an additional 25% tariff on India for its purchases of Russian oil, which the American president says is helping to finance Russia’s war
Putin’s calls ed his phone conversations with the leaders of South Africa, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Belarus, the Kremlin said
The calls suggested to at least one analyst that Putin perhaps wanted to brief Russia’s most important allies a potential settlement that could be reached at a summit with Trump. “It means that some of real peace agreement has been reached for the first time,” said Sergei Markov, a -Kremlin Moscow-based analyst
Analysts say Putin is aiming to outlast the West Trump’s Friday s came after he said he would meet with Putin even if the Russian leader will not meet with Zelenskyy
That stoked fears in Europe that Ukraine could be sidelined in efforts to stop the continent’s biggest conflict since World War II
Putin said in a previous statement that he hoped to meet with Trump as early as next week, possibly in the United Arab Emirates
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said in an assessment Thursday that “Putin remains uninterested in ending his war and is attempting to extract bilateral concessions from the United States without meaningfully engaging in a peace cess.” “Putin continues to believe that time is on Russia’s side and that Russia can outlast Ukraine and the West,” it said
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