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

President Trump said he’ll meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska next Friday as he pushes to negotiate an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine.

In a Truth Social post Friday, Mr. Trump said the “highly anticipated” meeting will be Aug. 15, and that further details will be coming. Russian and Alaska are separated by the 51-mile-wide Bering Strait.

Mr. Trump said earlier at the White House, while hosting the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armeniato sign a peace deal in their conflict, that the meeting with Mr. Putin would be coming “very shortly.”

The president said “some swapping” of territory will be discussed to help end the war.

“You’re looking at territory that’s been fought over for three and a half years. A lot of Russians have died, a lot of Ukrainians. So we’re looking at that, but we’re actually to get some back and some swapping,” he said.

“It’s complicated. It’s actually — nothing easy. It’s very complicated. But we’re going to get some back. And we’re going to get some switched,” he said. “There will be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both. We will be talking about that either later or tomorrow or whatever.”

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Mr. Putin presented the Trump administration with a sweeping proposal for a cease-fire in Ukraine, demanding major territorial concessions by Kyiv —and a push for global recognition of Moscow’s claims — in exchange for a halt to the fighting, according to European and Ukrainian officials.

European officials expressed serious reservations about the proposal, which would require Ukraine to hand over Eastern Ukraine, a region known as the Donbas, without Russia committing to much other than to stop fighting, the Journal reported. The offer, which Mr. Putin conveyed Wednesday to U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow, set off a diplomatic scramble to get further clarity on details.

Mr. Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been working with European nations to get “what he needs.”

“In all fairness to President Zelenskyy he’s getting everything he needs to — assuming we get something done,” he said. “But I’ll be meeting very shortly with President Putin. It would have been sooner. I guess there are security arrangements that unfortunately people have to make.”

He said he thinks “we have a shot at” ending the war that began in February 2022.

Mr. Trump said earlier this week that he planned to meet with Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelenskyy as early as next week. He said he wanted to meet with Mr. Putin first, and then have a joint meeting with Mr. Zelenskyy.

Mr. Trump has ramped up his efforts to end the war, something he pledged to do on his first day in office, but more than six months later has not been accomplished.

Late last month, Mr. Trump gave Russia 10 days to agree to a peace deal with Ukraine or face sanctions and penalties. That deadline expired Friday. Mr. Trump announced Wednesday that he would add a 25% tariff on India as a penalty for purchasing Russian oil.

The 10-day deadline was much shorter than the initial 50-day window Mr. Trump gave Russia earlier this year.

Mr. Zelenskyy said in an X post earlier Friday, “There is already a lot of support, and it comes in the new circumstances, with a deadline now set for Russia to cease fire. So far, we see that the Russians are ignoring it — at least for now.”

He said Russia had launched new attacks on his country, and “no orders to stop have been given to the Russian army.”

“We are speaking with our partners to ensure real steps are taken. We are in constant communication with the American side, and our partners, for their part, are also engaging with the United States,” he said. “All are united in the understanding that there is a chance to achieve at least a ceasefire, and that everything depends on the right pressure on Russia.”