Trump to meet Putin on August 15 in Alaska

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday (August 8, 2025) said he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 15 in the U.S. State of Alaska.

He announced the meeting in a post on social meeting and said more details would follow.

Earlier, Mr. Trump had said that he will meet “very shortly” with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, a potential major milestone after expressing weeks of frustration that more was not being done to quell the fighting.

“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,” Mr. Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

This will be the first meeting between the leaders since Trump returned to the White House

Speaking to reporters at the White House after announcing a framework aimed at ending decades of conflict elsewhere in the world — between Armenia and Azerbaijan — Mr. Trump had refused to say exactly when or where he would meet with Mr. Putin, but that he planned to announce a location soon.

He also suggested that his meeting with the Russian leader could come before any sit-down discussion involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“We’re going to have a meeting with Russia, start off with Russia. And we’ll announce a location. I think the location will be a very popular one,” Mr. Trump had said.

He added: “It would have been sooner, but I guess there’s security arrangements that unfortunately people have to make. Otherwise I’d do it much quicker. He would, too. He’d like to meet as soon as possible. I agree with it. But we’ll be announcing that very shortly.”

First summit since 2021

If it happens, the meeting would be the first US-Russia summit since 2021, when former President Joe Biden met Mr. Putin in Geneva. It could mean a breakthrough in Mr. Trump’s effort to end the war, although there’s no guarantee it would stop the fighting since Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on their conditions for peace.

There was no immediate confirmation from Moscow.

Still, Mr. Trump said, “President Putin, I believe, wants to see peace, and Zelenskyy wants to see peace.” He said that, “In all fairness to President Zelenskyy, he’s getting everything he needs to, assuming we get something done.”

Mr. Trump also said that a peace deal would likely mean “there will be some swapping of territories” between Ukraine and Russia but did not provide further details.

Pressed on if this was the last chance to make a major peace deal, Mr. Trump said, “I don’t like using the term last chance,” and said that, “When those guns start going off, it’s awfully tough to get ’em to stop.”