The two leaders are set to meet in Alaska on Aug. 15 to discuss a way to end the ongoing Russia–Ukraine conflict.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to meet in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 15, in an effort to bring the Russia–Ukraine conflict to a close.
The summit will be the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since the start of Trump’s second term and the first time that the presidents of the two countries have met since Russian troops entered Ukraine in February of 2022, setting off the current phase of the conflict.
While Russian and Ukrainian forces have been in direct combat for about 3 1/2 years, the current conflict is part of a larger struggle for regional influence between Russia and the West.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who had been on friendly terms with Russia, fled Ukraine in February 2014, amid violent street demonstrations over his decision to back out of an agreement to expand economic ties with the European Union.
In February 2014, just days after Yanukovych fled Ukraine, Russian forces seized control of the Crimean Peninsula. By March, Moscow had formally declared Russia’s annexation of the territory. In Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, pro-Russian secessionists began to break from the post-Yanukovych Ukrainian government, setting the stage for a Ukrainian internal conflict that bled into the current stage of direct fighting between Russia and Ukraine.
The United States and various other countries around the world have supported Ukraine throughout the current stage of conflict, supplying weapons and financial aid to Kyiv, while expanding sanctions intended to isolate Russia financially.
Since 2022, the United States has appropriated $175 billion in direct aid and financial support to address the ongoing conflict and related regional security efforts, with about $128 billion of that going as direct support to Ukraine, according to an assessment by the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.
Throughout his 2024 presidential campaign and into his second presidential term, Trump repeatedly chafed at the U.S. financial commitment to Ukraine thus far, called on Europe to take on a greater share of the financial burden for its regional security, and expressed a desire to quickly negotiate an end to the conflict.
Although Trump said at points on the campaign trail that he could get a deal to resolve the Ukraine conflict within 24 hours of taking office, a truce has remained elusive.
Last month, amid growing frustration with the slow pace of negotiations, the U.S. president set an Aug. 8 deadline for his Russian counterpart to agree to a cease-fire deal to avoid new U.S. sanctions and economic penalties targeting Russia and its trade partners. As this deadline passed, Trump announced that he and Putin would meet in person but provided no further update about the sanctions threat.
Trump and Putin are expected to meet at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson at 11:30 a.m. local time.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not be in attendance.
By Ryan Morgan
