What You Need To Know Ahead Of Trump And Putin’s Alaska Meeting

President Donald Trump is set to meet face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, a high-stakes summit that could mark the first step toward bringing the war in Ukraine to an end. 

Here’s what you need to know ahead of the most consequential meeting between an American and Russian leader in years.

The Why

Trump has been clear since retaking office in January that he wants the over 3-year-long war — which is believed to have claimed over 1.4 million lives — to come to an end. The meeting is an effort to make progress after months of unproductive phone calls, missed deadlines, and numerous calls for action.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the meeting is a way for Trump to see Putin face-to-face and assess whether he is serious.

“The president feels like, ‘Look, I’ve got to look at this guy across the table. I need to see him face-to-face. I need to hear him one-on-one. I need to make an assessment by looking at him,’” Rubio said in a Tuesday morning interview. 

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Trump has faced criticism for meeting with Putin before the Russian leader made any concessions to end the war. Still, Rubio defended the move, pointing to Trump’s history as a dealmaker.

“A meeting is what you do to kind of figure out and make your decision,” he said. “So honestly, I think we’re going to know very early in that meeting whether this thing has any chance of success or not.”

The Plan

The talks will kick off on Friday at 3:30 PM EST (11:30 AM local time) at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, a U.S. military installation located in the northern part of Anchorage, Alaska. They will reportedly begin with a one-on-one meeting between Trump and Putin, accompanied only by their interpreters. The length of the conversation will depend on the two leaders, according to Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy aide.

Following the private session, the leaders will continue discussions over a working lunch where their delegations will be present. Then, the talks are expected to conclude with a joint press conference.

“So tomorrow, bright and early, he will be departing the White House for our joint military base in Anchorage, Alaska, where he will engage in a one-on-one meeting with President Putin, which will be followed by a bilateral lunch with the respective delegations from both countries, and then a press conference,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Thursday morning.

The Russian delegation will include Putin, Ushakov, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, and the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev. 

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The American delegation will also consist of five members, though the White House has not yet released an official list of names.

No documents are expected to be signed during the meeting, according to the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

On Saturday, the Russian government issued a statement praising the location of the meeting.

“Russia and the United States are close neighbours, they share borders. So it does make sense if our delegation simply crosses the Bering Strait and if such an important and expected meeting between the two leaders takes place specifically in Alaska,” the statement reads. 

The statement added that the next meeting should take place in Russia.

“An invitation to that effect has already been made to the President of the United States,” the statement adds.

The Goals

On Fox Radio’s Brian Kilmeade Show Thursday morning, Trump said he believes Putin will make a deal.

“He’s going to make a deal. I think he’s going to. And we’re going to find out — I’m going to know very quickly,” Trump said. 

On Thursday, Putin said that the Trump administration “is making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the fighting, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in the conflict,” reported NBC News.

Trump has faced criticism for not including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or other European leaders in the upcoming meeting, though he’s made it clear that he hopes the talks will lay the groundwork for a second meeting with Zelenskyy at the table.

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If the talks go poorly, Trump said he’s going home and “not calling anybody.” But if they go well, he said he’s going to “call President Zelenskyy and the European leaders.”

Zelenskyy has not met with Putin since the war began.

Vice President JD Vance said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that the United States is working to schedule a meeting that includes Zelenskyy, but does not believe it should happen until after Trump meets with Putin.

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“One of the most important logjams is that Vladimir Putin said that he would never sit down with Zelenskyy, the head of Ukraine, and the president has now got that to change,” Vance said.

Zelenskyy flew to London on Thursday to meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the possible outcomes of Trump and Putin’s talks.

A spokesperson in Starmer’s office said that the Trump-Putin talks “present a viable chance to make progress as long as Putin takes action to prove he is serious about peace.”

Trump assesses that there is a 25% chance of the talks failing, adding that negotiating the end of the war is “like chess.”

If talks do fail, Trump says he is open to adding additional sanctions on Russia.

“There will be consequences,” Trump said to reporters on Wednesday. “I don’t have to say. There will be very severe consequences.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for more sanctions and pressure to be exerted on Russia in a video posted to X on Sunday.

“Everyone sees that there has been no real step from Russia toward peace, no action on the ground or in the air that could save lives,” he said. “That is why sanctions are needed, pressure is needed. Strength is needed — of the United States, of Europe, of all nations in the world that want peace and stability in international relations. If Russia does not want to stop the war, then its economy must be stopped.”

Dmitriev told CNN on Thursday that the talks are “a chance to sort of reset, if the meeting goes well, US-Russia relations.”

While the primary focus of the talks will be ending the war in Ukraine, discussions over economic cooperation between the two countries are also likely. However, President Trump declined to confirm any specifics during his interview on The Brian Kilmeade Show.

“Well, I’d rather not say because I don’t want to play my hand in public, but whatever my hand is, economic incentives — and disincentives maybe — are more important, in a way, but incentives economically, you know,” he said.

Putin, who has failed to take decisive steps to end the war quickly, appears eager to shed Russia’s pariah status and regain access to the Western financial system after years of sanctions and diplomatic isolation.

Putin, who has been in power for more than 25 years as either prime minister or president, has met with American presidents 48 times — including six times with Trump during the latter’s first term. This will be their first in-person meeting of Trump’s second term, though the two leaders have had several phone calls.