US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to meet on Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, in a high-profile attempt to break the deadlock over the war in Ukraine. The meeting, arranged on short notice, will be held at Alaska’s largest military installation, a strategic Cold War-era base that once served as North America’s “top cover” against Soviet threats.
The choice of venue carries both symbolic and practical significance. Alaska, purchased from Russia in 1867, lies just across the Bering Strait from Russian territory. The base’s location meets stringent security requirements and avoids the logistical challenges of arranging such a summit during Alaska’s peak tourist season. More than 30,000 people live and work on the 64,000-acre site, which remains a key Arctic readiness hub for US forces.
Trump has made ending the war in Ukraine a central foreign policy pledge, claiming he could broker peace within 24 hours if re-elected. However, three earlier rounds of Russia-Ukraine talks he initiated this summer have failed to produce progress. Frustrations mounted last month when Trump set an August 8 deadline for Putin to agree to a ceasefire, later replacing it with the plan for this face-to-face meeting.
The White House has tempered expectations, describing the Alaska summit as a “listening exercise” rather than a venue for signing an agreement. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will not attend in person but is scheduled for a virtual meeting with Trump and European leaders ahead of the summit. Zelensky has warned that any agreement reached without Ukraine’s direct input would be “dead decisions.”
Sources suggest Trump is pushing a ceasefire plan that would allow Russia to retain Crimea and the Donbas region, while relinquishing Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Ukraine has firmly rejected any territorial concessions, while Putin remains insistent on Ukrainian neutrality and limits on its military.
While both leaders claim to seek an end to the conflict, starkly opposing goals remain. The Alaska meeting may offer a rare chance for direct dialogue but few expect a breakthrough on Friday. Instead, the summit will likely be a high-profile test of Trump’s ability to influence Putin and shift the trajectory of a war now in its third year.
