US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a high-risk, high-profile summit on Friday in Alaska, a meeting that could shape the trajectory of the war in Ukraine and redefine global power dynamics.
Putin’s arrival marks his first step onto Western soil since ordering the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine — a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and in which Russia has made fresh territorial gains just days before the meeting.
The summit, taking place at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, carries immense symbolic weight. The site once served as a Cold War listening post against the Soviet Union, and Alaska itself was purchased from Russia in 1867 — a historical transaction Moscow occasionally invokes in territorial arguments.
Trump extended the invitation following a suggestion from Putin, but has since struck a defensive tone, warning the talks could end within minutes if Russia refuses to compromise. “If it’s a bad meeting, it’ll end very quickly,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “If it’s a good meeting, we’re going to end up getting peace in the pretty near future.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, pointedly excluded from the Alaska talks, has rejected Trump’s calls to consider ceding occupied territory, calling the summit a “personal victory” for Putin. He warned that the Russian leader was using the meeting to “come out of isolation” and dilute the impact of Western sanctions.
Trump — who has in the past expressed admiration for Putin and faced criticism for his deferential stance at their 2018 Helsinki summit — is framing Friday’s encounter as a “feel-out meeting” to test the Russian president’s willingness to accept a ceasefire. He has promised that any final settlement would be negotiated in a three-way meeting including Ukraine, but has also downplayed demands for security guarantees to Kyiv.
Putin, wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, has traveled rarely since the invasion. The United States is not a party to the ICC, and Trump’s Treasury Department has temporarily eased certain sanctions to facilitate the Russian delegation’s visit, including allowing the use of international payment systems in Alaska.
Both leaders will first meet one-on-one with interpreters, followed by a working lunch with aides. Neither is expected to leave the airbase, where protesters in Anchorage have already set up displays of solidarity with Ukraine.
The outcome of the summit remains uncertain, with Trump estimating a “one in four chance” of failure. Diplomatic analysts warn that Putin could deploy diversion tactics to offer symbolic concessions without altering Russia’s position. “Putin is a master of the new shiny object which turns out to be meaningless,” said Daniel Fried, a former US diplomat now with the Atlantic Council.
For Trump, the meeting represents both an opportunity to demonstrate deal-making prowess and a risk of appearing too accommodating to Moscow — a political balancing act playing out under intense global scrutiny.
