Trump Says He Will Meet With Putin in Alaska Next Week

 

Trump Says He Will Meet With Putin in Alaska Next Week

 

Mr. Trump also suggested that a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine would include “some swapping of territories,” signaling that the U.S. may join Russia in trying to compel Ukraine to cede land.

 

Tyler Pager David E. Sanger

By Tyler Pager and David E. Sanger

Reporting from Washington

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/us/politics/trump-russia-ukraine-deal.html

Aug. 8, 2025

 

President Trump said he would meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia next Friday in Alaska, as he tries to secure a deal to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.

 

Mr. Trump announced the meeting Friday shortly after he suggested that a peace deal between the two countries could include “some swapping of territories,” signaling that the United States may join Russia in trying to compel Ukraine to permanently cede some of its land.

 

“We’re going to get some back, and we’re going to get some switched,” Mr. Trump said while hosting the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan for a peace summit at the White House. “There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both, but we’ll be talking about that either later, or tomorrow.”

 

The meeting, the first in-person summit between an American and Russian president since President Joseph R. Biden Jr. met with Mr. Putin in June 2021, reflects Mr. Trump’s confidence in his ability to persuade Mr. Putin in a face-to-face encounter, a goal that has eluded Mr. Trump and his predecessors. For Mr. Putin, the meeting itself is a victory after he spent the past several months largely isolated from the international community, with NATO leaders — other than Mr. Trump — refusing to communicate directly with him.

 

The meeting also presents a host of challenges. Ukrainian leaders have adamantly opposed relinquishing any of their land to Russia, and the country’s constitution bars President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine from ceding any territory.

 

There would also be numerous political and military hurdles for Ukraine in turning over land to Russia, as well as questions including security guarantees for Ukraine and the future of frozen Russian assets. And many diplomats have suggested that Mr. Putin may be more interested in dragging out diplomacy to give him time to pummel Ukraine than in securing a peace deal.

 

White House officials declined to say exactly where in Alaska the two leaders would meet or why Mr. Trump decided to hold the meeting there, though it is the closest U.S. state to Russia. In 2021, the Biden administration held talks with China in Anchorage, Alaska.

 

Mr. Trump also provided little additional detail about the meeting, what territory could be swapped or the broader contours of a peace deal, saying earlier Friday that he did not want to overshadow the peace pledge between Armenia and Azerbaijan. But he told European leaders earlier this week that he planned to follow up his session with Mr. Putin with a meeting with Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelensky.

 

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and an advocate for U.S. support of Ukraine, praised Mr. Trump’s announcement of the meeting.

 

“To those who criticize President Trump for being willing to meet with Putin to end the bloodbath in Ukraine — remember Reagan met with Gorbachev to try to end the Cold War,” he posted on social media. “I’m confident President Trump will walk away — like Reagan — if Putin insists on a bad deal.”

 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday in an interview with EWTN, a Catholic media organization, that the United States has “some understanding” of what the Russians want “to stop this war from a diplomatic standpoint.”

 

“Now, I’m not claiming that what the Russians would need and what Ukraine would need are the same,” he said, without providing specifics. “There’s a difference, and there’s a gap there.”

 

He added: “Can we bridge the gap between the Ukrainian side and the Russian side on this close enough so the president can come in as part of any sort of meeting and maybe be the closer on this deal?”

 

Even a successful meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin would be just an opening move in any deal. Beyond the question of territory, a number of equally thorny issues would need to be settled. Among them is whether Mr. Zelensky would get security guarantees from Europe, the United States or NATO to keep Russia from pausing, then resuming, a war to try to take the rest of the country.

 

In the past, Mr. Putin has also demanded sharp limits on the number and quality of arms that the West could provide to Ukraine, and he has argued for a variety of steps that could change the government, including elections, which he would presumably try to influence by seeking to place a more pro-Russia leader.

 

Russian officials have demanded that Ukraine cede the four regions that Moscow claimed to have “annexed” from Ukraine in late 2022, even as some of that land remains under Ukrainian control.

 

Mr. Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with his inability to end a conflict that, as a candidate for president, he promised he would settle in 24 hours. And since taking office, he has oscillated in his approach to Russia. Earlier in his term, he showed considerable deference to Mr. Putin, to the point of joining North Korea in opposing a United Nations resolution condemning Russia for its 2022 invasion.

 

He also berated Mr. Zelensky in the Oval Office earlier this year for not showing enough gratitude to the United States for its military support, telling the Ukrainian leader that he didn’t “have the cards” to negotiate a peace deal. But more recently, he has criticized Mr. Putin for not accepting the terms of a proposed cease-fire, and for prolonging the conflict.

 

Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s special envoy, met with Mr. Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, a session Mr. Trump said was “highly productive.” But shortly after the meeting, Mr. Trump announced he would increase tariffs on India to 50 percent, as a penalty for purchasing Russian oil.

 

Friday also marked the deadline for Russia to agree to a cease-fire before Mr. Trump imposed additional sanctions on its oil exports, though it appeared Mr. Trump would not follow through on that threat after announcing his meeting with Mr. Putin.

 

Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.

 

David E. Sanger covers the Trump administration and a range of national security issues. He has been a Times journalist for more than four decades and has written four books on foreign policy and national security challenges.