US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin will meet in Alaska today, the first meeting between the leaders of these two countries since 2021.
The meeting was organized, at the request of Russia, regarding the situation in Ukraine, namely the aggression that Russia launched against this country in February 2022 and which is still ongoing.
Trump and Putin will begin the meeting at 9 p.m. Bosnia and Herzegovina time, and will be held at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base, the largest in Alaska.
In addition to Ukraine, other issues of importance to Putin and Trump are on the table, and the primary topic will be the potential normalization of relations between Moscow and Washington.
Russia hopes to emerge from this meeting without additional sanctions, which Trump has announced, and with confirmation of the occupation of certain parts of Ukraine, as well as the potential for opening up to the American, and eventually the global, market.
On the other hand, Trump hopes to emerge from this meeting with a plan for a ceasefire in Ukraine. He campaigned to end the war “within 24 hours,” but failed to do so. The meeting is his most serious attempt yet to end the war that began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The meeting will be closely watched in Kiev. Although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had hoped for a trilateral meeting in which he would participate, it never happened.
European countries supported Zelensky in their messages that there would be no solution to the war without Ukraine and its representatives.
Zelensky said this in response to reports that Trump would offer Putin either recognition of the occupied parts of Ukraine as part of Russia, or some kind of territory swap. Trump also said that any plan would have to be supported by Kiev.
In any case, this meeting will be watched by the whole world, and Trump also emphasized that, if everything goes as he imagined, this will be only the first in a series of meetings, and that Zelensky will also participate in the next one.
