The U.S. president will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of an effort to bring the war in Ukraine to a close.
President Donald Trump announced he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15 as part of an effort to bring the war in Ukraine to a close.
“The highly anticipated meeting between myself, as President of the United States of America, and President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, will take place next Friday, August 15, 2025, in the Great State of Alaska,” he announced on Truth Social on Aug. 8. “Further details to follow. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
This confirmation comes hours after Trump announced that he would be meeting Putin “very shortly” and that a location for the face-to-face would be announced “a little bit later.”
He said earlier in the day that increased military spending by NATO and new U.S. sanctions on nations that buy oil from Russia may have contributed to Moscow’s agreement to the talks.
“We’ve been working on this one for a long time,” Trump told reporters at the White House, adding that the talks to lay the groundwork for a cease-fire negotiation were complicated.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that Putin would meet with Trump “in the coming days,” after which Putin suggested the talks would be held in the United Arab Emirates.
When asked if Putin and Zelenskyy could be signing a peace deal similar to Friday’s pact between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the president was optimistic.
“I think my instinct really tells me that we have a shot at it,” Trump said.
The summit will be Trump’s first meeting with Putin since he returned to the White House in January.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff visited Moscow earlier in the week and met with Putin for three hours of talks on Wednesday.
Witkoff arrived in Moscow only days before a deadline set by Trump for Russia to make progress on a peace deal.
The announcement of a face-to-face summit between the two leaders follows Trump’s adoption of more coercive measures to get Moscow to come to the table, including imposing an additional 25 percent tariff on India for purchasing oil from Russia, raising the total rate to 50 percent.
