Trump to meet Putin in Alaska on 15 August

KABUL (Pajhwok): US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to meet in Alaska on 15 August to discuss ending the three-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine, media reports said on Saturday.

Trump announced the 15 August meeting on social media, and it was later confirmed by a Kremlin spokesperson, who described the location as “quite logical” given Alaska’s relative proximity to Russia.

“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 have died,” Trump said at the White House on Friday.

“It’s very complicated. We’re going to get some back, we’re going to get some switched. There will be some swapping of territories, to the betterment of both.”

The US president did not provide further details of what the proposal would entail.

The Kremlin spokesperson added that Trump had been invited to Russia for a potential second summit. There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine.

The announcement of the meeting came just hours after Trump suggested that Ukraine might have to cede territory in order to end the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.

However, President Putin has repeatedly insisted that any deal must require Ukraine to relinquish some of the territories Russia has seized since 2014. He has also called for a halt to Western aid for Ukraine and an end to Kyiv’s efforts to join the NATO military alliance.

kk/sa