Vladimir Putin already en route to Alaska, says Kremlin. The Russian leader will meet U.S. President Donald Trump there to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. Kyiv doubts Trump can persuade Putin to halt hostilities.
The Trump‑Putin Meeting in Alaska
On August 15, within the territory of the United States that belonged to Russia until 1867, a meeting between the leaders of the United States and Russia will take place. The one‑on‑one talks between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are set to begin at 21:30 Polish time. Before 8:00, Reuters reported that the meeting time had been shifted to 21:00 Polish time. Trump believes that Putin wants to reach a peace agreement in the Ukraine war, and the highly anticipated meeting in Alaska will mark its beginning. The U.S. President gives only a 25% chance that the Friday summit will end in failure. “If it doesn’t work, I’ll focus on governing the country,” he clarified. The talks will take place at a military base in Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city in the United States. The previous day, a protest against Russia’s war policy took place in Anchorage, with several hundred thousand people participating.
Putin En Route to Alaska
Vladimir Putin is already en route to Alaska. While flying to the United States, he stopped in Magadan, in the Kolyma Mountains, where he visited industrial facilities. In the 1940s, the Soviet Union sent over 12,000 Poles—soldiers and their families—to Magadan. Some of them died due to cold, disease, and harsh labor during the extraction of Kolyma mineral resources. The Kremlin announced that from Magadan, Putin will fly straight to meet Donald Trump in Anchorage, a straight‑line distance of about three thousand kilometres.
Kyiv Skeptical Ahead of Trump‑Putin Meeting
Ukrainians do not believe that Donald Trump will be able to persuade Vladimir Putin to suspend fighting. They fear that the price Kyiv would pay for Russia’s agreement to stop hostilities would be too high. At the same time, they hope that the United States and the European Union will force the Kremlin to verify its aggressive plans. Kyiv has repeatedly stressed that a ceasefire cannot come at the cost of losing territories occupied by Russia. Additionally, Kyiv does not want peace to be synonymous with capitulation. Most Ukrainians support President Volodymyr Zelensky’s stance, which repeatedly emphasizes that one cannot talk about Ukraine without Ukraine.
Expectations Before the Trump‑Putin Summit in Alaska
Meanwhile, the President of the United States has announced serious consequences for Russia if Vladimir Putin does not agree to end the war in Ukraine. During a talk with Fox News, the president expressed cautious optimism about today’s meeting with Putin in Anchorage and suggested that the goal of the talks could be to lay groundwork for a trilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The latest Pew Research Center poll shows that Americans are deeply divided on whether the United States has a duty to help Ukraine defend against Russia. Fifty percent of respondents believe that it does, while 47 percent are opposed. At the same time, 40 percent of respondents express trust in Donald Trump’s decision regarding the war, while 59 percent remain skeptical or lack trust.
