Trump & Putin to meet in ALASKA next Friday, Don says as Ukraine & Russia will have to ‘swap land' for peace deal

The Sun

a day ago

Juliana Cruz Lima
Sayan Bose
Georgie English
Published: Invalid Date,
DONALD Trump and Vladimir Putin will officially meet face-to-face next Friday in Alaska to discuss a crunch peace deal.
The US President says the Ukraine war is "very close" to ending but believes both nations will have to agree to "swap territories" if they want to end the bloodshed.
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Trump had teased the exact location of the talks earlier in the day as he vowed to reveal the "popular" destination soon.
But just an hour after finalising a White House meeting with Azerbaijan and Armenia's leaders, Trump announced the meeting would be held on US soil.
He posted on Truth Social saying: "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."
Washington and Moscow are said to be eyeing a deal to put an end to the bloody conflict in Ukraine - but it may not be all good news for Kyiv.
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Trump told reporters in The White House that Zelensky is "going to have to get ready to sign something" in order to bring peace to his nation.
Top diplomats from the US and Russia and currently working on an agreement to finalise post-war territories, senior officials told Bloomberg.
Sources said Trump's team is trying to get Ukraine and its European allies on board to get a peace deal that would see Kyiv make some concessions.
It comes as Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk suggested that a "freeze" in the conflict is close.
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The peace deal will be the main topic of conversation when Putin and Trump sit down together next week.
One major sticking point which remains centers around Putin's long-term demands, which include the annexation of Ukrainian territory.
Everything you need to know about a Trump, Putin, Zelensky showdown summit – and who has the upper hand
He is reportedly demanding that Ukraine cede its entire eastern Donbas area to Russia, as well as Crimea - which Moscow annexed in 2014.
This means Ukrainian troops will need to withdraw from the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk - the regions still being held by Kyiv.
In return, Moscow would stop its offensive in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine along the current battlelines, according to the officials.
Zelensky has been adamant that Ukraine will not accept any annexation of Ukraine's land.
But it could be a take-it-or-leave-it offer during the high-stakes meeting, which Kyiv risks being presented.
Trump announced today that the only way to resolve the issues is for both sides to accept losses of land.
He said: "It's complicated, actually. Nothing is easy. It's very complicated.
"We're going to get some switched. There'll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both."
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Igor Novikov, Zelensky's ex-adviser, spoke to The Sun about the Putin and Trump meet up on US soil.
He said: "Trump understands that he needs to put enough sanction pressure and military pressure on Russia for them to consider ending this war.
"But at the same time, Putin tries to manipulate and charm him, massage his ego into a position where Russia wins time and the US moves further away from helping Ukraine.
"Whatever they decide upon. It won't be taken for granted by the Ukrainian people."
It is still unclear if Zelensky will be invited to take part in the meeting after he has constantly asked to sit down with Putin in person.
Putin has said he's ready to meet Trump - calling the summit a "mutual" goal.
But he signalled reluctance on meeting Zelensky directly, saying: "I have nothing against it in general… But certain conditions must be created for this.
"But unfortunately, we are still far from creating such conditions."
Who has the upper hand?
by Juliana Cruz Lima, Foreign News Reporter
RIGHT now, everything hangs in the balance - and the power dynamic could shift in a heartbeat.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, former British Army officer and military analyst, said the fact the summit is even happening is a win in itself.
But as for who's calling the shots? That's where things get complicated.
Noting the Russian leader still believes he's making ground in Ukraine, the expert told The Sun: 'Until fairly recently, it's been pretty clear that President Putin has absolutely no desire for peace.
'His aim at the beginning of his special military operation over three and a half years ago was to subjugate the whole of Ukraine.'
According to de Bretton-Gordon, Trump has only recently woken up to the fact that he's being played.
'It would appear that Trump has had a bit of an epiphany, a bit of a change of mind, and has now realised that Putin has been playing him.'
And now, Don is bringing the businessman in him and threatening to hit Russia where it hurts most: the wallet.
'If Trump follows through with his sanctions and tariffs… then this is the reason I think that Putin has come to the table,' de Bretton-Gordon explained.
'Economic and financial analysts who really know about these things believe that the Russian economy would peter out pretty quickly without the massive amounts of money and resources it gets from oil.'
In other words, Trump holds the economic sledgehammer — if he's willing to swing it.
But Putin isn't out of the game. His forces are still advancing, still hammering Ukrainian cities, and still killing civilians.
'Russia seems to be moving forward slowly,' de Bretton-Gordon warned.
'Attacking civilian targets in Ukraine at an unbelievable scale.'
Zelensky, meanwhile, remains the wild card.
'The people who are most important here are the Ukrainians,' he said.
'A bad deal for Ukraine is worse than no deal at all.'
And that's the real risk. Trump might be chasing headlines, not justice.
'I think Trump probably just wants to get a deal of some description,' the former army officer said.
'One just hopes that Trump doesn't try and do some sort of backhand deal with Putin, just so that he can claim that there is now peace in Ukraine, because the short-term peace is no good to anybody.'
So who has the upper hand? Right now, it's still up for grabs.
But if Trump sticks to his economic guns, and if Putin starts to feel the heat on the home front, the balance might just tip.
The US president also dismissed claims that next week's historic summit hinges on a three-way meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky.
Asked if Putin needed to meet Zelensky in order to meet him, Trump clarified: "No, he doesn't."
Despite that, the White House is preparing for the possible bilateral or trilateral summit.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed: "The White House is working through the details of these potential meetings… details will be provided at the appropriate time."
Zelensky, meanwhile, has been working the phones with European leaders, wary of being sidelined in a direct US-Russia deal.
A meeting with Putin and Trump will come after weeks of constant barbs being fired at the Russian tyrant by America's leader.
Trump has expressed frustration with Putin, questioning whether the Russian leader really wants peace with Ukraine.
Putin has snubbed peace for months and is instead steadily increasing his overnight bombing raids - which could soon hit 1,000 drones and missiles a day.
Just days ago, 31 people died including five children after the Russians fired an Iskander missile into a residential tower block in Kyiv.
Putin, who has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire, said over the weekend that he wants peace but that his demands for ending his invasion were "unchanged".
In response, Trump imposed a 50-day deadline on Russia to agree to a deal before he cut it down even further last week.
The White House demanded "progress" from Moscow or face being hit with secondary sanctions targeting Russia's oil lifeline and key allies like India and China.
The Republican strongman previously posted on Truth Social: "These two Nations have been at War for many years… Many Leaders have tried to end the War, with no success, until now, thanks to 'TRUMP'."
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Topics
Global politics
Nuclear Weapons
Ukraine war
Donald Trump
Vladimir Putin
Moscow
North America
Russia
The White House
Ukraine
United States
Washington DC
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