US President Donald Trump gathers with Russian homologist Vladimir Putin on Friday in Alaska, the first meeting of both since the Republican politician returned to the White House, focusing on the conflict in Ukraine.
Over the past eight months, Trump has expressed admiration for the Kremlin leader but also fury and even disgusting due to violent bombing in Ukraine, who gave him the idea that “perhaps Putin doesn’t want to finish the war.”
Following a reference to a “exchange of territories” between Russia and Ukraine, which deserved a forceful refusal by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and his European allies, the White House has already dropped expectations about the meeting.
Here’s what you know about Friday’s summit:
Where will it happen?
The summit will take place at the joint base Elmenndorf-Richardson, around Anchorage. The beginning of the meeting is scheduled for 11:30 local (20:30 in Lisbon).
It is Putin’s first trip to the United States since 2015 has moved to the UN General Assembly in New York.
In Alaska, Putin does not risk seeing the detention mandate issued in 2023 by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, as the United States, such as Russia, are not linked to the judicial instance.
The summit runs where the East is with the West, in a family place for both countries as a line from the front of the Cold War, of anti -meat defense, advanced radar posts and collection of information.
The meeting foresees only the presence of Trump and Putin, who will only accept to meet Zelensky with a base agreement for the end of hostilities and maintains that “it is still far from this moment.
Kiev and the European allies have already expressed opposition to an agreement on the conflict without Kiev’s participation.
What does Russia want?
As an antecedent of the meeting, Trump has shown over the past few weeks signs of exasperation with Putin for his refusal to wage large-scale bombing in Ukraine as well as a 30-day ceasefire, defended by Kiev as a first step towards peace.
Alternatively, Moscow requires unacceptable conditions for Zelensky, such as the removal of its troops from the four regions that Russia has invaded since 2022 (Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporijia and Kherson) and the interruption of western arms deliveries to Kiev.
For a broader peace, Putin intends that Kiev give in to the attached regions, although he does not control the whole of any of them, and to renounce adherence to the NATO and his military strengthening plans, as well as the recognition of the Russian as an official language, along with the Ukrainian.
Russia occupies about 20% of the Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, almost the entire Lugansk region and practically two thirds of Donetsk, which together make up the Donbass (East), the country’s strategic industrial center.
Russia also controls more than half of the Kherson region and parts of Zaporijia, both in southern Ukraine, and maintains small troop bags in Kharkiv and Sumy in the Northeast.
What does Ukraine want?
The Ukrainian President remains firm in the position that any peace agreement will only happen with the participation of his country and should include robust security guarantees to avoid further Russian aggression.
Since the beginning of the conflict, Putin has been playing over time and warned Ukraine that he will face more difficult business conditions as Russian troops progress to other regions of the country, such as Dnipropetrovsk, in the center of the country.
Some observers suggest that Russia could give in these recent gains by territories under Ukrainian control in the four regions attached by Moscow and the White House leader suggested “territorial exchanges” as part of their efforts to end the conflict.
The US President also implied that vast maritime areas could be added that Kiev has lost since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
“There will be some ongoing land exchange. I know that for Russia and through conversations with everyone. For the good of Ukraine. Good things, not bad. And also some bad things for both,” Trump said on Monday.
However, Zelensky claims that Putin “is doing ‘bluff'” about his military power and the ineffectiveness of sanctions against Moscow as a way to condition negotiations. At the same time, it insists that “the Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupant” and this perspective would represent a disaster for their presidency, motivating protests in power after more than three years of bloodshed.
Moreover, the change in boundaries defined in 1991 is outside its authority, as it would be a violation of the Constitution, an argument that Trump does not understand.
“I mean, he got permission to get into war and kill everyone. But do you need permission to make a territory exchange?” Asked the US leader.
On the other hand, Zelensky considers that only the fact that the summit happens is already a victory for Putin, in a form of legitimation that breaks the western isolation to which it was subject, although Moscow preserves the tacit support of other powers, starting with China.
Ukraine also aims to ensure that Moscow pays the billionaires damage to the destruction that caused and returns about 20,000 minors deported to Russia, a very sensitive theme among the Ukrainians.
What do you want to Trump?
After arguing that this war would never have happened if he was beginning at the White House and promised to end it in 24 hours, Donald Trump has reviewed his speech since he started his second term on January 20.
Faced with the parties’ intransigence, the US leader evolved into expressions of impatience with both sides and, more than once, suspended military support and information to Kiev and threatened Moscow with the worsening sanctions and rates secondary to Russian oil importing countries.
An ultimatum in this sense expired last Friday, the same day when the summit with Putin was announced, although Donald Trump maintains the hypothesis of “very serious consequences” for Russia if dialogue with the Russian counterpart does not produce results in relation to Ukraine, although they are not to neglect advancements in relaunching relations between Washington and Moscow.
At the beginning of his second term, the Republican politician positioned himself as a “peace and unifying” and assumed himself as a candidate for a Nobel Prize for his involvement in Ukraine, in the Middle East, or more recently in the long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
However, on Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt has dropped expectations about the summit in Alaska and indicated that it will be “a listening exercise”, which will serve Trump “to get a better understanding” of the way to put an end to the war, which will evolve into an extended meeting with the Ukrainian President if on Friday there is progress.
In his torrent of summit statements, the US president signaled earlier this week that one can turn off this process: “Maybe say ‘good luck, keep fighting’. Or maybe say ‘we can reach an agreement.'”
What do Europeans want?
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz promoted several high-level pre-level virtual meetings that involved Trump and Zelensky, but also representatives of the European Union, NATO Secretary-General and several outstanding European leaders.
As a result, European leaders have transmitted their support to the White House leader to obtain a ceasefire, or otherwise Moscow will have to be subjected to new sanctions. Similarly, “the fundamental interests of European and Ukrainian security should be protected,” Merz warned, talking alongside Zelensky in Berlin.
The German chancellor also argued that although Kiev is willing to discuss territorial issues, the base must be the current line of contact in the front of combat and that “the principle should be maintained that borders cannot be changed by force.”
As a sign of the continuation of European support to Kiev, Germany announced on Wednesday the financing of a new $ 500 million package in US military equipment for Ukraine, as part of a NATO initiative, the third in recent weeks in the same value after the commitments made by the Netherlands and Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
