Why are Trump and Putin meeting in Alaska?

The United States and Russia have agreed to hold a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin next Friday, to discuss the means to end the war in Ukraine.

Trump announced the meeting last Friday, the same day of his self-imposed deadline for Russia to accept a cease-fire or faces more American sanctions.

Three series of talks between Russia and Ukraine held at Trump’s request this summer have not yet brought the two parts of peace closer.

Here is what we know about the meeting between the two leaders, which takes place in Alaska – an old Russian territory which only became an American state in 1959.

Trump pushed hard – without much success – to end the war in Ukraine.

As a candidate, Trump promised that he could end the war within 24 hours of his entry into office. He also said on several occasions that the war “would never have arrived” if he had been president at the time of the invasion of Russia.

Last month, Trump told the BBC that he was “disappointed” by Putin.

The frustrations grew up and Trump established a deadline of August 8 for Putin to accept an immediate cease-fire or faced more serious American sanctions.

While the deadline has reached, Trump rather announced that he and Putin would meet in person on August 15.

The meeting comes after the special envoy, Steve Witkoff, had “very productive” talks with Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, according to Trump.

A White House official said Trump was willing to hold a trilateral meeting that also includes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

But, for the moment, there remains a summit of Trump-Putin, as initially requested by the Russian chief.

In response to the news of the Alaska summit, Zelensky said that any kyiv’s without contribution agreement would be equivalent to “dead decisions”.

And Friday, after Trump declared that it would take “an exchange of territories” for Moscow and Kyiv to reach an agreement, Zelensky spoke of Telegram.

“We will not reward Russia for what it has perpetrated,” wrote Zelensky. “All decisions against us, any decision without Ukraine, are also decisions against peace.”

Addressing Fox New on Sunday, American vice-president JD Vance suggested that Zelensky could join Putin and Trump for talks on a later date.

But for the moment, he said he would not be “productive” for Zelensky to meet Putin before Trump’s meeting with the Russian chief in Alaska.

“Basically, the President of the United States must be the only one to bring these two together,” he said.

The American president said on Friday that an agreement “to arrest the murder” is “very close”. He would also have launched some reflections on what may be necessary for both parties to accept the fighting.

While Russia and Ukraine say that they too want to end, the two seem to want things to which the other is severely opposed.

Ukraine has been categorical about the fact that it will not accept Russian control of the regions it has entered, notably Crimea.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the idea. “There is nothing to say here. It is against our constitution,” he said.

So far, Putin has not moved from her territorial requests, the neutrality of Ukraine and the future size of his army.

Russia has invaded the country, in part, to the conviction of Putin that Ukraine became Westernized and accused the Western defensive alliance, NATO, of using the country to take foot in bringing its troops to the borders of Russia.

The Trump administration has tried to influence European leaders on a cease-fire contract that would put the expanses of Ukrainian territory in Russia, reports the American partner of the BBC CBS News.

The agreement would allow Russia to keep control of the Crimean Peninsula and take the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which is made up of Donetsk and Luhansk, according to sources familiar with talks.

Russia illegally occupied Crimea in 2014 and its forces control the majority of the Donbas region.

Under the agreement, Russia should abandon the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where it currently has military control.

“There will be an exchange of territories towards the improvement of the two,” Trump told journalists at the White House on Friday.

Vance, in his Fox interview, said that any future transaction “would make no one super happy.”

“You have to make peace here … You can’t finger,” he said. “The way is to have a decisive leader to sit and force people to meet.”

On Friday evening, Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social than a “long -awaited meeting” between him and Putin would take place on August 15 in the “Great State of Alaska”.

“More details to follow,” he said.

Trump had said that the meeting place would be “very popular for a number of reasons”.

The exact location of their meeting in Alaska has not been published.

The United States bought Alaska in Russia in 1867, giving historical meaning in Reunion.

Russian presidential assistant Yuri Ushakov said that the location is “quite logical” and that the two countries are neighbors, the Bering Strait divided them.

“It seems completely logical that our delegation simply steals on the Strait of Bering and for such an important and anticipated summit of the leaders of the two countries to stand in Alaska.”

The last time the Alaska took the scene in an American diplomatic event was in March 2021, when the diplomatic and national security team of Joe Biden met its Chinese counterparts in Anchorage.

The sit-down has become acrimonious, the Chinese accusing the Americans of “condescension and hypocrisy”.