U.S. President Donald Trump will host Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15 for talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine — a setting heavy with historical irony, as the United States bought the territory from Russia in 1867 in a deal long remembered in Moscow as a strategic blunder.
“The highly anticipated meeting between myself, as President of the United States of America, and President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, will take place next Friday, August 15, 2025, in the Great State of Alaska. Further details to follow,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The Kremlin confirmed the summit, with Putin aide Yuri Ushakov noting it “seems quite logical that our delegation should simply fly across the Bering Strait.”
The U.S. purchased Alaska for $7.2 million — about two cents an acre — a transaction mocked at the time in Washington as “Seward’s Folly” but later seen as a resource-rich windfall. In Russia, the sale is still viewed as a humiliating loss of territory, giving next week’s talks an unusual symbolic backdrop.
Territorial Concessions in Play
Earlier Friday, Trump suggested a peace deal could involve Ukraine ceding territory to Russia.
“There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both,” he said, adding that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky faces constitutional limits on making such concessions.
Kyiv has not commented on the Alaska announcement. European capitals, which have not been invited to the summit, have privately expressed concern that Washington and Moscow could move to impose terms on Ukraine.
According to people familiar with the talks, Russia has proposed that Ukraine relinquish the entire Donbas region — Luhansk and Donetsk — in exchange for a ceasefire, along with formal recognition of Moscow’s annexation of Crimea. Moscow also seeks to retain control over parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia that secure its land bridge to Crimea.
Ukraine has said it will not accept the loss of territory it still controls. Any concessions would require a national referendum under the Ukrainian constitution.
From Back-Channel Talks to Alaska
The Alaska summit follows three hours of talks in Moscow on Wednesday between Putin and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Russia had, for the first time, offered “concrete examples” of what it would require to end the war.
The choice of Alaska avoids legal complications for Putin, who faces a 2023 International Criminal Court arrest warrant on war crimes charges. The U.S. is not a party to the court.
Ceasefire Prospects
Putin has resisted meeting directly with Zelensky, saying “conditions must be created” before such a dialogue can take place. U.S. officials had floated a two-plus-one format — Trump meeting each leader separately, then together — but Ushakov said Moscow preferred to focus on the bilateral with Trump.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday there were “signals” that a freeze in the conflict “is closer than it is further away,” though Zelensky remains cautious.
Since 2022, Russia has occupied roughly 20% of Ukraine’s territory. Neither side has achieved a decisive breakthrough on the battlefield in over a year.
Trump, who has vowed to end the war “very quickly,” said the Alaska meeting could be the turning point.
“We’re getting very close to a deal,” he told reporters. “I’ll do whatever I can to stop the killing.”
Historical Echoes
The choice of Alaska for negotiations over territorial concessions creates striking historical parallels. When Imperial Russia sold Alaska in 1867, it was motivated partly by financial pressures following the Crimean War and concerns about defending the remote territory from British forces in Canada.
Today's talks occur as Russia seeks to formalize territorial gains in Ukraine while facing economic pressure from Western sanctions - though Putin's negotiating position appears far stronger than his 19th-century predecessors given current battlefield realities.
Alaska last hosted high-stakes diplomacy in March 2021, when Biden administration officials met Chinese counterparts in Anchorage in talks that quickly devolved into public recriminations.
