Trump-Putin summit could decide the course of the Russia-Ukraine war

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — U.S. President Donald Trump is meeting face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday for a high-stakes summit that could determine not only the trajectory of the war in Ukraine but also the fate of European security.

The sit-down offers Trump a chance to prove to the world that he is both a master dealmaker and a global peacemaker. He and his allies have cast him as a heavyweight negotiator who can find a way to bring the slaughter to a close, something he used to boast he could do quickly.

For Putin, a summit with Trump offers a long-sought opportunity to try to negotiate a deal that would cement Russia’s gains, block Kyiv’s bid to join the NATO military alliance and eventually pull Ukraine back into Moscow’s orbit.

There are significant risks for Trump. By bringing Putin onto U.S. soil, the president is giving Russia’s leader the validation he desires after his ostracization following his invasion of Ukraine 3 1/2 years ago. The exclusion of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from the summit also deals a heavy blow to the West’s policy of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” and invites the possibility that Trump could agree to a deal that Ukraine does not want.

Any success is far from assured, especially as Russia and Ukraine remain far apart in their demands for peace. Putin has long resisted any temporary ceasefire, linking it to a halt in Western arms supplies and a freeze on Ukraine’s mobilization efforts, which were conditions rejected by Kyiv and its Western allies.

“HIGH STAKES!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social as his motorcade idled outside the White House shortly after sunrise in Washington. An hour later, he waved as he boarded Air Force One but did not speak to reporters.

Trump on Thursday said there was a 25% chance that the summit would fail, but he also floated the idea that if the meeting succeeds he could bring Zelenskyy to Alaska for a subsequent, three-way meeting, a possibility that Russia hasn’t agreed to.

When asked in Anchorage about Trump’s estimate of a 25% chance of failure, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters that Russia “never plans ahead.”

“We know that we have arguments, a clear, understandable position. We will state it,” he said in footage posted to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Telegram channel.

Trump said in a Fox News radio interview Thursday that he didn’t know if they would get “an immediate ceasefire” but he wanted a broad peace deal done quickly. That seemingly echoes Putin’s longtime argument that Russia favors a comprehensive deal to end the fighting, reflecting its demands, not a temporary halt to hostilities.

The Kremlin said Trump and Putin will first sit down for a one-on-one discussion, followed by the two delegations meeting and talks continuing over “a working breakfast.” They are then expected to hold a joint press conference.

Trump has offered shifting explanations for his meeting goals

In the days leading up to the summit, set for a military base near Anchorage , Trump described it as " really a feel-out meeting." But he’s also warned of “very severe consequences” for Russia if Putin doesn’t agree to end the war and said that though Putin might bully other leaders, “He’s not going to mess around with me.”

Trump said Friday his talks with Putin will include Russian demands that Ukraine cede territory as part of a peace deal. He said Ukraine has to decide, but he also suggested Zelenskyy should accept concessions.

“I’ve got to let Ukraine make that decision. And I think they’ll make a proper decision,” Trump told reporters traveling with him to Alaska.

Trump said there’s “a possibility” of the United States offering Ukraine security guarantees alongside European powers, “but not in the form of NATO.” Putin has fiercely resisted Ukraine joining the trans-Atlantic security alliance, a long-term goal for Ukrainians seeking to forge stronger ties with the West.

Members of the media stand outside Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025, ahead of a meeting between President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin. (Jae C. Hong/AP)

Zelenskyy has time and again cast doubts on Putin’s willingness to negotiate in good faith. His European allies, who’ve held increasingly urgent meetings with U.S. leaders over the past week, have stressed the need for Ukraine to be involved in any peace talks.

Political commentators in Moscow, meanwhile, have relished that the summit leaves Ukraine and its European allies on the sidelines.

Dmitry Suslov, a pro-Kremlin voice, expressed hope that the summit will “deepen a trans-Atlantic rift and weaken Europe’s position as the toughest enemy of Russia.”

The summit could have far-reaching implications

On his way to Anchorage Thursday, Putin arrived in Magadan in Russia’s Far East, according to Russian state news agency Interfax.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the visit would include meetings with the regional governor and stops at several key sites, including a stop to lay flowers at a WWII-era memorial honoring Soviet-American aviation cooperation.

Foreign governments will be watching closely to see how Trump reacts to Putin, likely gauging what the interaction might mean for their own dealings with the U.S. president, who has eschewed traditional diplomacy for his own transactional approach to relationships.

The meeting comes as the war has caused heavy losses on both sides and drained resources.

Ukraine has held on far longer than some initially expected since the February 2022 invasion, but it is straining to hold off Russia’s much larger army, grappling with bombardments of its cities and fighting for every inch on the over 600-mile (1,000-kilometer) front line.

Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a senior fellow and director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, said U.S. antagonists like China, Iran and North Korea will be paying attention to Trump’s posture to see “whether or not the threats that he continues to make against Putin are indeed credible.”

“Or, if has been the past track record, he continues to back down and look for ways to wiggle out of the kind of threats and pressure he has promised to apply,” said Kendall-Taylor, who is also a former senior intelligence officer.

While some have objected to the location of the summit, Trump has said he thought it was “very respectful” of Putin to come to the U.S. instead of a meeting in Russia.

Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin Moscow-based analyst, observed that the choice of Alaska as the summit’s venue “underlined the distancing from Europe and Ukraine.”

Being on a military base allows the leaders to avoid protests and meet more securely, but the location carries its own significance because of its history and location.

Alaska, which the U.S. purchased from Russia in 1867, is separated from Russia at its closest point by just 3 miles (less than 5 kilometers) and the international date line.

Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson was crucial to countering the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It continues to play a role today, as planes from the base still intercept Russian aircraft that regularly fly into U.S. airspace.

Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Elise Morton in London and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

阿拉斯加州安克雷奇——美国总统唐纳德·特朗普将于周五在阿拉斯加与俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京举行面对面会晤，此次峰会意义重大，不仅可能决定乌克兰战争的走向，还可能决定欧洲安全的命运。

这次会谈让特朗普有机会向世界证明，他既是谈判高手，又是全球和平缔造者。他和他的盟友把他塑造成一位重量级谈判者，能够找到结束这场屠杀的办法——他过去曾吹嘘自己能迅速做到这一点。

对普京而言，与特朗普的峰会提供了一个他长期以来梦寐以求的机会，可以尝试谈判达成一项协议，以巩固俄罗斯的既得利益，阻止基辅加入北约军事联盟，并最终将乌克兰拉回莫斯科的势力范围。

对特朗普而言，此举风险巨大。普京受邀访问美国，无异于给予这位俄罗斯领导人他渴望已久的认可——此前，普京因三年半前入侵乌克兰而遭到孤立。乌克兰总统泽连斯基被排除在峰会之外，也对西方“没有乌克兰参与，就不要谈乌克兰”的政策造成了沉重打击，并增加了特朗普可能同意一项乌克兰不愿接受的协议的可能性。

任何成功都远未可知，尤其是在俄罗斯和乌克兰对和平的要求仍然存在巨大分歧的情况下。普京长期以来一直反对任何临时停火，并将其与西方停止武器供应和冻结乌克兰的动员行动挂钩，而这些条件均遭到了基辅及其西方盟友的拒绝。

“事关重大！！！” 特朗普在华盛顿日出后不久，车队停在白宫外时，在Truth Social上发帖说道。一小时后，他登上空军一号时挥手致意，但没有接受记者采访。

特朗普周四表示，峰会有 25% 的可能性会失败，但他同时也提出了一个想法，如果会晤成功，他可能会邀请泽连斯基前往阿拉斯加举行后续的三方会晤，但俄罗斯尚未同意这一可能性。

当被问及特朗普估计的 25% 的失败概率时，俄罗斯外交部长谢尔盖·拉夫罗夫在安克雷奇告诉记者，俄罗斯“从不提前计划”。

“我们知道我们有论据，我们有清晰、易懂的立场。我们会阐明这一点，”他在俄罗斯外交部Telegram频道发布的视频中说道。

特朗普周四在接受福克斯新闻电台采访时表示，他不知道能否“立即停火”，但他希望尽快达成一项全面的和平协议。这似乎与普京长期以来的立场相呼应，即俄罗斯倾向于达成一项全面协议来结束冲突，以反映俄罗斯的要求，而不是暂时停止敌对行动。

克里姆林宫表示，特朗普和普京将首先进行一对一会谈，随后双方代表团将举行会晤，并在“工作早餐”期间继续进行磋商。之后，预计他们将举行联合新闻发布会。

特朗普对其实现目标给出了前后矛盾的解释

在峰会召开前的几天里，特朗普称此次峰会“实际上是一次试探性会晤”，峰会地点定在安克雷奇附近的一个军事基地。但他同时警告说，如果普京不同意结束战争，俄罗斯将面临“非常严重的后果”。他还表示，尽管普京可能会欺凌其他领导人，“但他不敢跟我作对”。

特朗普周五表示，他与普京的会谈将包括俄罗斯提出的要求，即乌克兰必须割让领土作为和平协议的一部分。他说，乌克兰必须做出决定，但他同时也暗示泽连斯基应该接受一些让步。

“我必须让乌克兰自己做出决定。我认为他们会做出正确的决定，”特朗普在前往阿拉斯加的途中告诉随行记者。

特朗普表示，美国“有可能”与欧洲大国一道向乌克兰提供安全保障，“但不会以北约的形式”。普京一直强烈反对乌克兰加入跨大西洋安全联盟，而加入北约是乌克兰寻求与西方建立更紧密联系的长期目标。

2025年8月14日星期四，在美国总统唐纳德·特朗普与俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京会晤前夕，媒体记者聚集在阿拉斯加州安克雷奇的埃尔门多夫-理查森联合基地外。（Jae C. Hong/AP）

泽连斯基一再质疑普京是否有诚意进行谈判。他的欧洲盟友在过去一周与美国领导人举行了一系列日益紧急的会谈，强调乌克兰必须参与任何和平谈判。

与此同时，莫斯科的政治评论员们则乐见此次峰会将乌克兰及其欧洲盟友排除在外。

亲克里姆林宫人士德米特里·苏斯洛夫表示，他希望此次峰会能够“加深跨大西洋裂痕，削弱欧洲作为俄罗斯最强敌人的地位”。

此次峰会可能产生深远影响。

据俄罗斯国家通讯社国际文传电讯社报道，普京周四在前往安克雷奇的途中抵达了俄罗斯远东地区的马加丹。

克里姆林宫发言人德米特里·佩斯科夫表示，此次访问将包括与地区州长会面，并参观几个重要地点，其中包括在二战时期纪念苏美航空合作的纪念碑前献花。

外国政府将密切关注特朗普对普京的反应，很可能是为了评估这种互动对他们自己与美国总统的关系意味着什么。特朗普摒弃了传统的外交方式，转而采取交易式的关系处理方式。

此次会议召开之际，战争已给双方造成重大损失并耗尽了资源。

自 2022 年 2 月入侵以来，乌克兰的抵抗时间远远超过了一些人最初的预期，但它正竭力抵挡俄罗斯规模更大的军队，努力应对城市遭受的轰炸，并在超过 600 英里（1000 公里）的前线为每一寸土地而战。

新美国安全中心跨大西洋安全项目高级研究员兼主任安德里亚·肯德尔-泰勒表示，像中国、伊朗和朝鲜这样的美国对手将密切关注特朗普的姿态，以判断“他继续对普京发出的威胁是否真的可信”。

“或者，如果按照他过去的记录来看，他会继续退缩，并寻找各种方法来逃避他承诺要施加的那种威胁和压力，”肯德尔-泰勒说道，他本人也是一名前高级情报官员。

尽管有些人对峰会的举办地点表示反对，但特朗普表示，他认为普京选择来美国而不是在俄罗斯举行会晤是“非常尊重”的做法。

亲克里姆林宫的莫斯科分析人士谢尔盖·马尔科夫指出，选择阿拉斯加作为峰会举办地“凸显了与欧洲和乌克兰的疏远”。

身处军事基地可以让领导人避免抗议，并更安全地举行会议，但该地点因其历史和地理位置而具有其自身的意义。

阿拉斯加是美国于 1867 年从俄罗斯购买的，它与俄罗斯最近的距离只有 3 英里（不到 5 公里），并且与俄罗斯之间隔着国际日期变更线。

埃尔门多夫-理查森联合基地在冷战期间对遏制苏联至关重要。时至今日，它依然发挥着作用，该基地的飞机仍然会拦截经常闯入美国领空的俄罗斯飞机。

魏瑟特从华盛顿报道。美联社记者马修·李（华盛顿）、伊莉丝·莫顿（伦敦）和弗拉基米尔·伊萨琴科夫（莫斯科）对本报道亦有贡献。