President Donald Trump announced that he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, Aug. 15.
“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. Further details to follow. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
The meeting will be the first between the heads of state of Russia and the United States since the beginning of the war in Ukraine in February 2022. It will also be Putin’s first visit to the U.S. since 2015.
The visit marks the stark turnaround in U.S.-Russia relations since Trump took office — Putin coming to the U.S. was an unthinkable prospect as recently as November.
During an Oval Office meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan hours prior, Trump had hinted at the location. He said that the location of the peace summit would be a “very popular one for a lot of reasons,” and would be announced later in the day.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said the Alaskan summit will focus on outlining a long-term, peaceful solution to the “Ukrainian crisis.” Hopes are high for the meeting with the Kremlin, with Ushakov saying that Moscow expects the meeting after Alaska to take place in Ukraine. An invitation has already been sent.
“Moscow and Washington will dedicate the coming days to active and intense work on the parameters of the meeting in Alaska. It will be a complex process,” Ushakov said.
The top aide said the meeting in Alaska is “quite logical,” given its proximity to Russia. He also hinted that economic cooperation could be discussed around mutual interests in the Arctic, with the implementation of large-scale projects.
The sudden breakthrough marks another U-turn for Trump regarding his position toward Russia, after a breakdown in talks. Trump had grown increasingly bitter toward his Russian counterpart over the past few months, viewing his overtures as leading nowhere.
Trump and Putin last met in person in Osaka, Japan, in 2019 on the sidelines of the G20 summit. Putin later met with another U.S. president when he sat down with former President Joe Biden in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2021.
Direct communication between Moscow and Washington was cut off following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which saw Biden rally behind Ukraine. Trump opened up direct dialogue with Putin shortly after beginning his second term in an effort to serve as a neutral mediator, but a face-to-face meeting on U.S. soil is another major step.
Alaska was originally colonized by the Russian Empire, an area it ruled until it was sold to the U.S. in 1867. Tsar Alexander II sold the large area to recoup losses suffered during the Crimean War against the British, French, and Ottoman Empires. The tsar was also worried that the landmass, separated from the rest of the empire by a body of water, would be too vulnerable to British attack in the event of another war.
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