Trump, Putin begin Alaska summit on Ukraine war – DW – 08/15/2025

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin sat together in a room at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson after their arrival in Alaska. 

Against a backdrop bearing the slogan “Pursuing Peace,” the US and Russian presidents sat with members of their respective delegations without taking any questions from reporters or making any statements.

Donald Trump has greeted Vladimir Putin with a handshake on the red carpet in Alaska.

Putin appeared to crack a joke as the two leaders met on the tarmac before briefly posing for photos standing side-by-side.

After not taking any questions from reporters, they left the stage and got into a waiting car together, and could be seen smiling and chatting to each other in the backseat as the vehicle drove off.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said the previously planned one-on-one meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will now be a three-on-three session.

The US president is to be joined by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who arrived in Alaska earlier, is likely to be one of the team alongside Putin.

According to the Kremlin, the meeting will be followed by talks between the full delegations and continue over lunch. The two leaders are expected to hold a joint press conference.

Donald Trump has landed in Alaska for the highly anticipated summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump and Putin are expected to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and US-Russia ties.

More now from DW’s Ines Pohl, who is on the ground in Alaska.

Earlier on Friday, several hundred people had gathered in Anchorage, the state capital, to show their support for Ukraine.

A rally outside Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, where the Trump-Putin summit is being held, however, was much smaller.

Only a handful of protesters turned out to denounce Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.

As US and Russian leaders meet to discuss peace in Ukraine, key voices are missing — Ukraine and Europe. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warns that any deal must include Kyiv and begin with a ceasefire. Though Europe’s influence is limited, Merz could emerge as a key figure, urging President Trump to protect European and Ukrainian interests.

And for more news regarding Germany and its foreign policy, please take a look at our Germany updates blog.    

A Russian government aircraft has landed in Alaska ahead of the talks between the Russian and US presidents, according to flight tracking site Flightradar24.

It was unclear whether Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin was on board. The plane departed from Magadan in Russia’s Far East, where the Russian president had been earlier on Friday.

The Kremlin said the summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska is expected to last six to seven hours.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state television the meeting will begin with a personal conversation involving advisers, followed by delegation-level talks that could take place over a working lunch. He said the two leaders would later meet privately again before holding a joint press conference.

Putin left for Alaska from Russia’s Magadan region in the Far East. Peskov said the Russian leader was expected to arrive on time at 11 a.m. local time (1900 GMT/UTC) in Anchorage, where the meeting will take place at a US military base.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that Moscow was continuing to kill people and showing no intention of ending the war, just hours before the Russian and US presidents meet in Alaska

“There is no order, nor any signals from Moscow that it is preparing to end this war… they are also killing on the day of the negotiations,” Zelenskyy said in a video address posted on social media.

Separately, in his nightly video address, the Ukrainian leader reiterated his call for a trilateral meeting with himself, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

“It is precisely in this format that real solutions are possible,” Zelenskyy said.
 

DW’s Europe correspondent, Rosie Birchard, has the latest from the EU’s de facto capital, Brussels, where all eyes are on developments in Alaska.

A Friday night in mid-August is usually the peak of the European Union’s sleepy summer political recess. But tonight, officials are glued to their phones, waiting for any clue on whether their bid to influence US President Donald Trump ahead of his talks with Putin has worked. 

European leaders said their virtual meeting with the US president and his Ukrainian counterpart earlier this week went well — and there’s no doubt the trans-Atlantic mood music is better now than back in February when President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was booted out the White House, and Europe was left looking powerless.

A European Commission spokesperson told reporters on Thursday their “understanding” is that Trump will “debrief” Zelenskyy and European leaders following his tete-a-tete with Putin. “We don’t have a timeframe on this,” she added.

Until then, it’s a case of putting on a brave face and watching from afar. You can read all about Europe’s hopes and fears in this analysis by my colleague Anchal Vohra.

On his way to the summit with US President Donald Trump in Alaska, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Magadan region of his country, some 6,000 kilometers (about 3,750 miles) east of Moscow.

According to state media, Putin’s scheduled included a visit a fish oil capsule factory and cultural centers in the Russian Far East region’s capital, also called Magadan.

The city was a major transit centre for political prisoners during the Stalin era and was the administrative centre of a forced labor gold mining operation. The sparsely populated wider Magadan region, on the Sea of Okhotsk, today relies on mining and fishing.

After his visit, Putin was expected to review materials on Ukraine, bilateral tensions, and economic cooperation on his 3,000-kilometer journey to the summit in Anchorage.

DW’s Washington Bureau Chief Ines Pohl is in Alaska ahead of the Trump-Putin meeting. She spoke to Alaskans about their thoughts on the historic summit. 

While Donald Trump is rolling out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin, not everyone is pleased with the visit.

Several hundred people have expressed their protests by waving yellow and blue flags in support of Ukraine. Their main concern is that Zelenskyy is not participating in the meeting. 

Many of the protesters have voiced their opposition to having an alleged war criminal on American soil. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest.

Conversely, some Alaskans we met at a golf course expressed pride in having the president here, stating that they would prefer him to meet his Russian counterpart on American soil rather than in Russia.

US President Trump is expected to greet Russian President Putin on the plane upon his arrival in Anchorage, Alaska, the Kremlin has said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Russian state TV that the Russian president was due to arrive at 11:00 am local time (1900 GMT).

The meeting between US President Trump and Russian President Putin in a few hours in Alaska should ” open up a real path toward a just peace and a substantive discussion between leaders in a trilateral format,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

In a Friday post on X, Zelenskyy said he expected an intelligence report on Russia’s intentions and preparations for the meeting.

“It is time to end the war, and the necessary steps must be taken by Russia,” Zelenskyy wrote. “We are counting on America. We are ready, as always, to work as productively as possible.”