US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on August 15 to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. “The much-anticipated meeting between me as President of the United States and President Vladimir Putin of Russia will take place next Friday, August 15, 2025 in the Great State of Alaska,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
According to the Russian news agency TASS, the Kremlin also confirmed the meeting, citing Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov. Trump further said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was also involved in the peace talks and that the two sides were close to a ceasefire agreement to resolve the three-year conflict. The US president emphasized Zelensky’s role in any deal: “Zelensky will have to meet all his requirements – because he will have to be ready to sign any deal. And I think he’s working hard to get it done.” Addressing reporters at the White House on Friday, Trump hinted that the deal would include some land swaps.
Trump said, “Some areas will be exchanged in the interests of both countries.” Trump’s announcement came just hours after the White House unveiled a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which he described as an aggressive effort to resolve several global conflicts. This meeting will be Trump’s first face-to-face meeting with Putin after returning to the presidency. The election in Alaska – which is strategically located between the US and Russia – underscores the symbolic importance of this negotiation. Putin’s trip to Alaska will be his first visit to the United States in a decade. He last visited America in September 2015 during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, meeting President Barack Obama.
According to the State Department, Putin’s first trip to the US as Russia’s leader was in 2000, when he met with President Bill Clinton at the United Nations Millennium Summit. The 2015 trip was his seventh as president, making his upcoming meeting with Trump in Alaska his eighth. Meanwhile, the Kremlin said on Friday that Putin called Chinese leader Xi Jinping to inform him of his meeting with US Ambassador Steve Witkoff. The Kremlin said Xi expressed support for a long-term solution to the conflict. Putin is also scheduled to visit China next month. Meanwhile, the US accuses China, North Korea and Iran of supporting Russia’s war effort.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke to Putin on the phone and discussed the recent developments in Ukraine. The talks come just days after President Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on Indian goods on Russian oil imports, aimed at reducing Russia’s war financing. Apart from Xi and Modi, Putin also visited South Africa, Kazakhstan,Also contacted the leaders of Uzbekistan and Belarus.