ANCHORAGE, Alaska — US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s high-stakes summit on Moscow’s war in Ukraine stretched into a third hour on Friday, as both leaders searched for a path to end the deadliest European conflict in eight decades.
The two, joined by senior foreign policy advisers, met in a conference room at an Air Force base in Anchorage, with a larger follow-up session still to come. Trump’s stated goal was to secure a ceasefire and persuade Putin to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for direct negotiations.
Trump, who earlier claimed he could tell “within minutes” if Putin was serious about peace, said before boarding Air Force One that he would let Ukraine decide on any potential territorial concessions. “I’m not here to negotiate for Ukraine — I’m here to get them at the table,” he told reporters, adding that success would mean a rapid ceasefire: “I want the killing to stop.”
Zelenskyy, excluded from the summit, warned that freezing the conflict could cement Russian control over one-fifth of Ukraine. He reiterated his rejection of territorial handovers and called for US-backed security guarantees.
Upon arrival in Alaska, Trump greeted Putin on a red carpet before they traveled together to the meeting venue. A blue backdrop behind their delegations read “Pursuing Peace” as they began their first face-to-face talks since 2019.
Joining the discussions were US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump’s special envoy to Russia Steve Witkoff, Russian foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles will take part in a subsequent working lunch.
For Trump, a truce would bolster his image as a peacemaker — and potentially his case for a Nobel Prize. For Putin, the summit itself signals the erosion of Western efforts to isolate Moscow.
Putin remains wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, which Russia denies. Both sides deny targeting civilians, though the conflict has claimed thousands of lives, mostly Ukrainian, with a combined casualty estimate of 1.2 million.
Trump has acknowledged that ending the war is harder than expected. He has floated a three-way summit with Zelenskyy as a follow-up if Friday’s talks go well. Meanwhile, Zelenskyy reported that Russia continued its assaults, including a missile strike in Dnipropetrovsk that killed one person.
Trump has praised Putin as a “smart guy” and welcomed the presence of Russian business leaders in Alaska, though he warned that no deals would proceed until the war ends. US officials have also considered limited energy cooperation, such as using Russian nuclear icebreakers for Alaskan LNG projects.
A Kremlin source suggested Putin might accept freezing the conflict along current front lines in exchange for NATO’s eastern expansion halt and partial sanction relief. Economic pressure, including possible US tariffs on Russian crude buyers like China and India, looms over the talks.
Putin has also hinted at offering Trump a new nuclear arms control deal to replace the last remaining treaty, set to expire in February. Russia says it is open to a full ceasefire, with monitoring details to be negotiated — possibly starting with an air war truce.
