Alaska summit: Trump to meet Putin at his plane - What to know before the high-stakes meeting

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet face-to-face on Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, for talks that could shape the course of the war in Ukraine and the future of European security . According to Kremlin, Trump will meet Putin at his plane.

The meeting comes as Ukraine’s president has been excluded from the table, raising concerns among Kyiv and its allies about any deal made without Ukraine’s consent.

The choice of Alaska, with its deep historical ties to Russia, adds symbolic weight to the summit.

Summit schedule and format

• Putin’s plane is expected to land at 11 am (local time), when Trump will greet him, according to the Kremlin.
• Talks will start with a one-on-one “tête-à-tête” session with interpreters, followed by broader negotiations with delegations over a “working breakfast.”
• A joint news conference is planned at the end.
• Trump’s Alaska stop will last only a few hours, with departure for Washington at 5:45 pm (local time).

Security and location

• The summit is being held on a US military base for maximum security and to reduce protest risks.
• Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson played a strategic Cold War role intercepting Soviet aircraft and continues to monitor Russian flights near US airspace.
• Alaska, sold by Russia to the US in 1867 for $7.2 million, lies just three miles from Russia at its closest point.

Summit objectives and Trump’s stance

• Trump has promised to “see what [Putin] has in mind” and called it “really a feel-out meeting.”
• He estimated a 25% chance of failure but suggested that a successful outcome could lead to a three-way meeting with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Alaska, though Russia hasn’t agreed.
• Trump has hinted at possible “territory swaps,” worrying European allies and Kyiv.
• “If it’s a bad meeting, it’ll end very quickly, and if it’s a good meeting, we’re going to end up getting peace in the pretty near future,” Trump said Thursday.

Ukraine and European response

• Zelenskyy was not invited, breaking with the West’s “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” policy.
• European leaders met with Trump earlier in the week to stress that any peace plan must begin with a ceasefire and have Ukraine’s participation.
• Zelenskyy has repeatedly doubted Putin’s sincerity in negotiations.

Delegations and attendees

• Russia’s side: Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov; Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy aide; defense minister Andrei Belousov; finance minister Anton Siluanov; Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund.
• US side: Secretary of state Marco Rubio; treasury secretary Scott Bessent; commerce secretary Howard Lutnick; CIA director John Ratcliffe; special envoy Steve Witkoff, who has met Putin multiple times this year.

Geopolitical stakes and risks

• For Trump, the summit is a chance to prove himself a “master dealmaker” capable of ending the war he once claimed he could resolve in a day.
• For Putin, it offers a path to cement Russia’s battlefield gains, block Ukraine’s NATO bid, and drive a wedge between the US and Europe.
• Critics warn that bringing Putin to US soil grants him the validation he seeks after years of isolation.
• “No upside for the US, only an upside for Putin,” said Ian Kelly, former US ambassador to Georgia.
• George Beebe, former CIA Russia analyst, noted the risk of “blown expectations” from a quickly arranged high-level summit.

Global reactions and symbolic messaging

• Pro-Kremlin analyst Dmitry Suslov expressed hope the meeting will “deepen a trans-Atlantic rift and weaken Europe’s position as the toughest enemy of Russia.”
• Sergei Markov, another Kremlin-aligned voice, said Alaska’s location “underlined the distancing from Europe and Ukraine.”
• Andrea Kendall-Taylor of the Center for a New American Security warned that China, Iran, and North Korea will watch closely to gauge whether Trump’s threats to Putin are credible.

Broader context

• The war has stretched over 600 miles of front lines, with heavy losses on both sides.
• Ukraine continues to resist despite bombardments and a much larger Russian army, but resources are strained.
• Putin has linked any ceasefire to halting Western arms supplies and freezing Ukraine’s mobilization—conditions Kyiv and its allies reject.