Image Credit: Andrew Harnik / Staff / Getty 
On Friday evening President Donald Trump announced that he will be meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in-person on Friday August 15 in Alaska.
“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,” Trump said. “Further details to follow. Thank you for your attention to this matter!“
Originally Trump had said that Ukraine’s Dictator Vladimir Zelensky must be included in an in-person meeting, but on Thursday said that Zelensky was no longer necessary. It remains unclear if the Ukrainian Dictator will attend next Friday’s meeting.
This evening Trump said that a peace agreement to end the Ukraine war will likely include territorial exchanges between Ukraine and Russia.
“It’s very complicated. But we’re going to get some [territory] back, and we’re going to get some switched. There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both, but we’ll be talking about that either later or tomorrow,” Trump said while hosting leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia at the White House.
Russian news elaborated on the territorial details:
The Russian military is currently in control of patches of land along the border in the Ukrainian regions of Kharkov and Sumy. The latter was entered by the Russian military this year following the defeat and the expulsion of the Ukrainian invasion force that attacked Russia’s Kursk Region last August.
The capture of the Russian land around the border town of Sudzha had been touted by the Ukrainian leadership as a bargaining chip and leverage for the potential peace talks.
Moscow’s territorial control over the four formerly Ukrainian territories, incorporated into the country after a series of referendums in late 2022 remains partial. The Russian military has recently liberated the entirety of the Lugansk People’s Republic, while active hostilities continue in its sister republic of Donetsk. The regions of Zaporozhye and Kherson are partially held by Russia and Ukraine, yet Moscow does not control the namesake capital cities in either of them.
Interestingly, the in-person meeting with Putin was announced soon after Trump held a historic and successful peace summit between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Embed from Getty ImagesWASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 08: U.S. President Donald Trump (C) joins hands with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (L) and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan (R) during a signing ceremony in the State Dining Room of the White House on August 8, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump brought the two leaders together in an initial attempt to end the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan that has lasted for decades. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Following Wednesday’s meeting between Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Putin, the Kremlin announced Trump’s terms to end the Ukraine war were acceptable.
Directly prior to his Alaska meeting announcement, Trump issued a series of posts discussing his agenda of peace, likely setting the stage for the Putin meeting announcement.
An in-person meeting between the two world leaders has been mulled for weeks, with some early talk of Beijing, China as a possible venue, as well as the United Arab Emirates.
Putin said Thursday that the United Arab Emirates may provide a suitable location for an in-person meeting between him and Trump because of the “many friends” they both share there.
“One of our friends is the President of the United Arab Emirates. I think we will decide, but this would be one of the quite suitable places,” he said.
Trump and Putin have held numerous phone calls since Trump assumed office in late January.
