Trump says he’ll meet with Putin next Friday in Alaska

US President Donald Trump said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet next Friday in Alaska to discuss bringing an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Kremlin has not yet confirmed the details.

The meeting would be the first US-Russia summit since 2021, when former President Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva.

It could mean a breakthrough in 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.

The last time Russia’s leader was in the country was for a meeting with President Barack Obama at the UN General Assembly Meeting in New York in September 2015.

According to the State Department, Putin first came to the US as Russia’s leader in 2000 to meet with President Bill Clinton at the UN Millennium Summit in New York.

The 2015 meeting marked his seventh US visit as Russia’s president. His meeting with Trump will be his eighth.

The US president announced the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a post on social meeting.

The announcement came just hours after Trump told reporters he planned to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine with Putin. The president expressed cautious optimism, saying he believes "we have a shot” at brokering a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

Associated Press