U.S. President Donald Trump said ahead of his August 15, 2025 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska that he would seek to recover some Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory as part of his effort to explore a possible end to the war.
Speaking at the White House before the summit, Trump said Russia had occupied substantial areas of Ukraine and that he would try to get some of that territory returned. He also again raised the possibility of territorial changes in any eventual settlement, while providing few details about what such an arrangement could involve.
Trump Cast the Alaska Summit as an Initial Test
Trump described the planned encounter as a preliminary or “feel-out†meeting rather than a final negotiation. He said he expected to assess quickly whether Putin was prepared to make progress toward ending the fighting.
The August 15 summit in Alaska was arranged as the Trump administration increased diplomatic pressure on Moscow while continuing efforts to bring Russia and Ukraine toward negotiations.
Trump had also repeatedly used the phrase “land swapping†when discussing possible settlement terms. That wording generated uncertainty because Ukraine does not claim internationally recognized Russian territory as part of its sovereign territory, while Russia occupies Ukrainian land and claims several Ukrainian regions as part of the Russian Federation following annexation declarations that are not broadly recognized internationally.
Any negotiated territorial arrangement would therefore involve complex questions of sovereignty, military control, security guarantees and Ukrainian consent rather than a straightforward exchange of equivalent territory.
Ukraine and European Governments Insisted Kyiv Must Be Involved
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy objected to the possibility of decisions about Ukraine being made without Ukrainian participation. Responding to plans for the Alaska meeting, he said agreements reached without Kyiv would not produce an acceptable settlement for Ukraine.
European officials expressed a similar position. Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign-policy chief, warned against negotiations that treated Ukrainian territory as something outside powers could divide without Ukraine's consent.
European leaders argued that any durable peace agreement would need Ukraine's participation and emphasized that internationally recognized borders could not simply be altered through decisions taken by other governments.
Trump said that if Putin presented what he considered a potentially workable proposal, he intended to speak with Zelenskyy and European leaders. He also suggested that a later meeting could include both Putin and Zelenskyy, potentially followed by a trilateral session involving the U.S. president.
Russia Remained Cautious About a Putin-Zelenskyy Meeting
The Kremlin, however, had repeatedly said that conditions for a direct Putin-Zelenskyy meeting had not yet been established. Moscow maintained that substantial diplomatic preparation would be required before such a summit could take place.
That disagreement highlighted a central obstacle in the diplomatic process: Washington and Kyiv were discussing direct leader-level talks, while Moscow continued to insist that negotiations first address broader political and security conditions.
At the same time, fighting continued. Ukrainian officials said Russian military operations showed no clear sign that Moscow was preparing to halt hostilities before the Alaska meeting. Russia, for its part, continued to state that any settlement would need to address what it describes as the underlying causes of the conflict.
European Coordination Intensified Before the Summit
Ahead of the Trump-Putin meeting, Zelenskyy, U.S. Vice President JD Vance and senior European officials prepared for consultations intended to coordinate positions on ceasefire proposals, territorial questions and pressure on Russia.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz invited European Union and NATO leaders to discussions with Trump and Zelenskyy as European governments sought assurances that negotiations with Moscow would not determine Ukraine's future without Kyiv's involvement.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney similarly said that a peace settlement should be developed with Ukraine rather than imposed on it.
What Happened After the Alaska Meeting
Trump and Putin ultimately met at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage on August 15, 2025. The White House documented their joint appearance after the talks, but the summit did not produce an announced ceasefire or final peace agreement.
The diplomatic effort continued days later. On August 18, Trump met Zelenskyy and several European leaders at the White House, where discussions focused on possible security guarantees, territorial issues and the prospect of further direct negotiations involving Russia and Ukraine.
Trump later said he was seeking to arrange a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy before potentially joining them in a subsequent trilateral discussion. The White House described those contacts as part of an effort to move toward a negotiated settlement, although major disagreements over territory, security arrangements and the sequencing of negotiations remained unresolved.
The Alaska summit therefore became another step in a continuing diplomatic process rather than the decisive settlement Trump had hoped might eventually emerge. Russia's full-scale invasion, launched in February 2022, remained the central cause of the war, while the status of occupied Ukrainian territory continued to be one of the most difficult issues in negotiations.
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