What to know about the Putin-Trump summit in Alaska

The U.S.-Russia summit in Alaska is happening at a site where East meets West — quite literally — in a place familiar to both countries as a Cold War front line of missile defense, radar outposts and intelligence gathering.

Whether it can lead to a deal to produce peace in Ukraine more than 3 1/2 years after Moscow’s invasion remains to be seen.

Here’s what to know about the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, the first summit in four years:

When and where is it taking place?

The summit will take place Friday in Alaska, although where in the state is still unknown.

It will be Putin’s first trip to the United States since 2015, for the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Since the U.S. is not a member of the International Criminal Court, which in 2023 issued a warrant for Putin on war crimes accusations, it is under no obligation to arrest him.

Both countries confirmed a meeting between only Putin and Trump, even though there were initial suggestions that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy might be part of it. But the Kremlin has long pushed back against Putin meeting Zelenskyy — at least until a peace deal is reached by Russia and Ukraine and was ready to be signed.

Putin said last week he wasn’t against meeting Zelenskyy “but certain conditions need to be created” for it to happen and were “still a long way off.”

That raised fears about excluding Ukraine from negotiations. Ukrainian officials last week talked with European allies , who stressed that peace cannot be achieved without Kyiv’s involvement.

What’s Alaska’s role in Russian history?

It will be the first visit by a Russian leader to Alaska, even though it was part of the czarist empire until 1867, the state news agency Tass said.

Alaska was colonized by Russia starting from the 18th century until Czar Alexander II sold it to the United States in 1867 for $7.2 million. When it was found to contain vast resources, it was seen as a naïve deal that generated remorse and self-reproach.

After the USSR’s collapse, Alaska was a subject of nostalgia and jokes for Russians. One popular song in the 1990s went: “Don’t play the fool, America … give back our dear Alaska land.”

Sam Greene of King’s College London said on X the symbolism of Alaska as the site of a summit about Ukraine was “horrendous — as though designed to demonstrate that borders can change, land can be bought and sold.”

Trump has appeared increasingly exasperated with Putin over Russia’s refusal to halt the bombardment of Ukrainian cities. Kyiv has agreed to a ceasefire, insisting on a truce as a first step toward peace.

Moscow presented ceasefire conditions that are nonstarters for Zelenskyy, such as withdrawing troops from the four regions Russia illegally annexed in 2022, halting mobilization efforts or freezing Western arms deliveries. For a broader peace, Putin demands Kyiv cede the annexed regions, even though Russia doesn’t fully control them, and Crimea, renounce a bid to join NATO, limit the size of its armed forces and recognize Russian as an official language along with Ukrainian.

Zelenskyy insists any peace deals must include robust security guarantees for Ukraine to protect it from future Russian aggression.

Putin has warned Ukraine it will face tougher conditions for peace as Russian troops forge into other regions to build what he described as a “buffer zone.” Some observers suggested Russia could trade those recent gains for territory still under Ukrainian control in the four annexed regions annexed by Moscow.

Zelenskyy said Saturday that “Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.”

But Trump said Monday: “There’ll be some land swapping going on. I know that through Russia and through conversations with everybody. To the good, for the good of Ukraine. Good stuff, not bad stuff. Also, some bad stuff for both.”

What are expectations?

Putin sees a meeting with Trump as a chance to cement Russia’s territorial gains, keep Ukraine out of NATO and prevent it from hosting any Western troops so Moscow can gradually pull the country back into its orbit.

He believes time is on his side as Ukrainian forces are struggling to stem Russian advances along the front line amid swarms of Moscow’s missiles and drones battering the country.

The meeting is a diplomatic coup for Putin, isolated since the invasion. The Kremlin sought to portray renewed U.S. contacts as two superpowers looking to resolve various global problems, with Ukraine being just one.

Ukraine and its European allies are concerned a summit without Kyiv could allow Putin to get Trump on his side and force Ukraine into concessions.

“Any decisions that are without Ukraine are at the same time decisions against peace,” Zelenskyy said. ”They will not bring anything. These are dead decisions. They will never work.”

European officials echoed that.

“As we work towards a sustainable and just peace, international law is clear: All temporarily occupied territories belong to Ukraine,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. “A sustainable peace also means that aggression cannot be rewarded.”

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Sunday he believed Trump was “making sure that Putin is serious, and if he is not, then it will stop there.”

“If he is serious, then from Friday onwards, the process will continue. Ukraine getting involved, the Europeans being involved,” Rutte added.

Since last week, Putin spoke to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as well as the leaders of South Africa, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan, the Kremlin said.

That suggested Putin perhaps wanted to brief Russia’s most important allies about a potential settlement, said pro-Kremlin analyst Sergei Markov.

Associated Press writer Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed.

美俄峰会在阿拉斯加举行，地点正值东西方交汇之处——毫不夸张地说——对于美俄两国而言，这里都是冷战时期导弹防御、雷达站和情报收集的前线。

在莫斯科入侵乌克兰三年半之后，这能否促成乌克兰和平协议，还有待观察。

以下是关于俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京和美国总统唐纳德·特朗普会晤（四年来的首次峰会）需要了解的信息：

活动何时何地举行？

峰会将于周五在阿拉斯加举行，但具体地点尚未确定。

这将是普京自2015年出席纽约联合国大会以来首次访问美国。由于美国并非国际刑事法院成员国（该法院于2023年对普京发出战争罪逮捕令），因此美国没有义务逮捕他。

两国最终确认只有普京和特朗普会晤，尽管最初有传言称乌克兰总统泽连斯基也可能参加。但克里姆林宫长期以来一直反对普京与泽连斯基会面——至少在俄乌达成和平协议并准备签署之前不会。

普京上周表示，他不反对与泽连斯基会面，“但需要创造一些条件”才能促成此事，而这些条件“仍然遥遥无期”。

这引发了人们对乌克兰被排除在谈判之外的担忧。乌克兰官员上周与欧洲盟友进行了会谈，盟友们强调，没有基辅的参与，和平就无法实现。

阿拉斯加在俄罗斯历史上扮演着怎样的角色？

塔斯社报道称，这将是俄罗斯领导人首次访问阿拉斯加，尽管阿拉斯加在1867年之前一直是沙皇帝国的一部分。

阿拉斯加从18世纪开始被俄罗斯殖民，直到1867年沙皇亚历山大二世以720万美元的价格将其卖给了美国。当人们发现阿拉斯加蕴藏着丰富的资源时，这笔交易被认为是天真的，引发了懊悔和自责。

苏联解体后，阿拉斯加成了俄罗斯人怀念和取笑的对象。20世纪90年代一首流行歌曲唱道：“别装傻，美国……把我们亲爱的阿拉斯加还给我们。”

伦敦国王学院的萨姆·格林在 X 上表示，选择阿拉斯加作为乌克兰峰会的举办地具有“可怕的象征意义——仿佛是为了表明边界可以改变，土地可以买卖”。

特朗普对普京日益不满，因为俄罗斯拒绝停止轰炸乌克兰城市。基辅方面已同意停火，并坚持将停火作为迈向和平的第一步。

莫斯科提出的停火条件对泽连斯基来说根本行不通，例如从俄罗斯2022年非法吞并的四个地区撤军、停止动员以及冻结西方武器供应。为了实现更广泛的和平，普京要求基辅归还被吞并的地区（尽管俄罗斯并未完全控制这些地区）和克里米亚，放弃加入北约的计划，限制其武装力量规模，并承认俄语与乌克兰语同为官方语言。

泽连斯基坚持认为，任何和平协议都必须包含强有力的安全保障，以保护乌克兰免受未来俄罗斯的侵略。

普京警告乌克兰，随着俄军进入其他地区建立他所谓的“缓冲区”，乌克兰将面临更加艰难的和平条件。一些观察人士认为，俄罗斯可能会用近期取得的战果交换乌克兰在莫斯科吞并的四个地区中仍控制的领土。

泽连斯基周六表示，“乌克兰人不会将自己的土地拱手让给占领者。”

但特朗普周一表示：“会有一些土地交换。我通过俄罗斯方面以及与各方的对话得知了这一点。这对乌克兰有利。都是好事，不是坏事。当然，对双方来说也会有一些坏事。”

期望是什么？

普京将与特朗普的会晤视为巩固俄罗斯领土扩张、阻止乌克兰加入北约、阻止乌克兰驻扎任何西方军队的机会，以便莫斯科能够逐步将乌克兰拉回自己的势力范围。

他认为时间站在他这边，因为乌克兰军队正努力阻止俄罗斯军队在前线的推进，而莫斯科的导弹和无人机正蜂拥而至，猛烈轰炸着这个国家。

这次会晤对自入侵以来一直处于孤立状态的普京来说是一次外交上的重大胜利。克里姆林宫试图将美俄两国恢复接触描绘成两个超级大国寻求解决各种全球性问题，而乌克兰问题只是其中之一。

乌克兰及其欧洲盟友担心，如果没有基辅参与，峰会可能会让普京拉拢特朗普，迫使乌克兰做出让步。

泽连斯基说：“任何不顾乌克兰利益的决定，都是反对和平的决定。这些决定毫无意义，注定失败，永远不会奏效。”

欧洲官员也表达了同样的看法。

欧盟外交政策负责人卡娅·卡拉斯表示：“在我们努力实现可持续和公正和平的过程中，国际法明确规定：所有临时被占领土都属于乌克兰。可持续和平也意味着侵略行为不能得到奖励。”

北约秘书长马克·吕特周日表示，他相信特朗普“正在确认普京是认真的，如果他不是认真的，那么事情就到此为止了。”

“如果他是认真的，那么从周五开始，进程将继续进行。乌克兰将参与其中，欧洲人也将参与其中，”吕特补充道。

克里姆林宫表示，自上周以来，普京分别与中国国家主席习近平、印度总理纳伦德拉·莫迪、巴西总统路易斯·伊纳西奥·卢拉·达席尔瓦以及南非、哈萨克斯坦、乌兹别克斯坦、白俄罗斯和吉尔吉斯斯坦的领导人进行了通话。

亲克里姆林宫分析人士谢尔盖·马尔科夫表示，这表明普京或许想向俄罗斯最重要的盟友通报潜在的解决方案。

美联社驻布鲁塞尔记者洛恩·库克对此文亦有贡献。