Alaska Chosen As Place For Putin-Trump Meeting About Ukraine
IT'S A FIRST After Russia Sold Alaska To The U.S. In 1867, No Russian Leader Has Set Foot In The Region FROM THE ALASKA BEACON Trump...
IT'S A FIRST
After Russia Sold Alaska To The U.S. In 1867, No Russian Leader Has Set Foot In The Region
FROM THE ALASKA BEACON
Trump plans to meet Putin next week in Alaska for Ukraine peace talks
The visit would be the first by a Russian leader to Alaska; no word on whether the Ukrainian leader will also attend
The location, timing and other details of the meeting were not immediately available. Staff for all three members of Alaska’s congressional delegation said they were unaware of the announcement ahead of time.
“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,” Trump wrote on social media.
Within an hour of the announcement, a protest was declared for 2 p.m. on that date in downtown Anchorage to “fight back against Trump” and protest the president.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said afterward that he welcomes the upcoming meeting.
“It’s fitting that discussions of global importance take place here. For centuries, Alaska has been a bridge between nations, and today, we remain a gateway for diplomacy, commerce, and security in one of the most critical regions on earth. The world will be watching, and Alaska stands ready to host this historic meeting,” he said in a post on social media.
If the Trump-Putin meeting takes place, it would be a historic moment for Alaska, which has hosted international Presidential meetings only twice before. President Richard Nixon met Japanese Emperor Hirohito in Anchorage in 1971, and President Ronald Reagan met Pope John Paul II in Fairbanks in 1984.
Neither Putin nor any serving Russian leader has ever visited Alaska, which was part of the Russian Empire before being sold to the U.S. in 1867. Trump has made several stops in the state, including a campaign event in 2022.
Rep. Nick Begich III, who was endorsed by Trump in last year’s U.S. House elections, said in a statement, “The pursuit of peace requires open dialogue. And it’s encouraging that the dialogue will be occurring at the highest levels here in Alaska, where Russia and America share a historic relationship and geographic proximity. My prayer is that the conversations are productive and result in meaningful progress toward reconciliation.”
Trump has repeatedly said on social media that he is interested in negotiating with Putin in order to bring an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On Wednesday, in a meeting with special U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, Russian officials offered to end their invasion of Ukraine if that nation surrendered its eastern Donetsk region to Russia, leaving the invaders in control of three parts of Ukraine: Donetsk, Luhansk and the Crimean Peninsula, seized in 2014.
At the White House on Friday, Trump implied during a news conference that he might be interested in accepting that plan.
“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.
“There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both, but we’ll be talking about that either later, or tomorrow,” he said.
Ukrainian and European leaders have repeatedly rejected the idea of surrendering parts of Ukraine to Russia, even temporarily, and have warned that Putin’s peace proposals may be a strategy to avoid new sanctions or tariffs.
Trump had threatened to impose sanctions on Russia’s fleet of oil tankers and on countries buying Russian oil, if the nation did not agree to a ceasefire by this Friday. As of the end of the day in Europe, there was still no cease-fire and no sanctions.
After Witkoff heard the Russian proposal, Trump relayed details to European leaders on Wednesday, according to the Financial Times. Joining that call was Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On Friday, there was no indication whether Zelenskyy would be invited to the Alaska meeting. One Ukrainian official told the Financial Times that if the meeting took place without Ukrainian involvement, it would be akin to the meeting between British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and German Chancellor Adolf Hitler that presaged the division of Czechoslovakia in 1938, before World War II in Europe.
While Putin and Trump have communicated by telephone, next Friday’s meeting would be the first between the two world leaders since the start of Trump’s second term in office. The two last met in person at the 2019 summit of the G20 world leaders in Osaka, Japan.
U.S. presidents in Alaska
Modern U.S. presidents frequently stop in Alaska aboard Air Force One while traveling internationally. Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, outside Anchorage, is a typical refueling stop on their trans-Pacific flights.
It’s less usual for presidents to travel beyond the base’s gates. Here’s a brief listing of sitting presidents that have visited Alaska for an extended time, and when:
Warren Harding, 1923
Franklin Roosevelt, 1944
Dwight Eisenhower, 1960
Lyndon Johnson, 1966
Richard Nixon, 1971
Gerald Ford, 1974 and 1975
Jimmy Carter, 1979 and 1980
Ronald Reagan, 1983 and 1984
George H.W. Bush, 1989
Bill Clinton, 1994
George W. Bush, 2002, 2005, 2008
Barack Obama, 2009, 2015
Donald Trump, 2022, 2025
Joe Biden, 2023
Some presidents also visited Alaska before taking office. President George W. Bush briefly lived in the state in 1974. President John F. Kennedy visited the state in 1960, during his campaign for office, but didn’t visit during his three-year term.
Alaska has current and historical ties to its neighbor to the west, having been part of Russia before being sold to the United States in 1867, but a Russian leader has never visited Alaska while in office.
