US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in Alaska next Friday (August 15) to discuss the future of the war in Ukraine.
Trump announced the August 15 meeting on social media and it was later confirmed by a Kremlin spokesperson, who said the location was “quite logical” given Alaska’s relative proximity to Russia. The spokesperson added that Trump had been invited to Russia for a potential second summit.
The announcement of the meeting came just hours after Trump had signaled that Ukraine might have to cede territory in order to end the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.
“You’re looking at territory that’s been fought over for three and a half years, a lot of Russians have died. A lot of Ukrainians have died,” Trump said at the White House on Friday.
“It’s very complicated. We’re going to get some back, we’re going to get some switched. There will be some swapping of territories, to the betterment of both.”
What a deal on Ukraine could entail
CBS News, citing sources familiar with the discussions, reports that the White House is trying to sway European leaders to accept an agreement that would include Russia taking the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine and keeping Crimea. It would give up the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, which it partially occupies, as part of the proposed agreement, CBS reports.
Earlier on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Putin had proposed a similar arrangement to Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff during a recent meeting in Moscow.
It remains unclear whether Ukraine and European allies would agree to such a deal, given Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin remain far apart on the conditions for peace. Zelensky has roundly rejected any preconditions for territorial concessions.
The possibility of Russia taking control of Donetsk and Luhansk in a ceasefire deal has raised some concern over whether such an agreement would just encourage Russia to attack Ukraine again down the road.
“Official recognition of territory conquered by force without a cost is an incentive to do more in the future,” one European official briefed on the topic said, according to CNN. “It could incentivize Russia to do more attacks on Ukraine again in a few years.”
Related: Trump Issues 50-Day Ultimatum to Putin, Sends Patriot Missiles to Ukraine
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