What Ukraine and Russia want from Trump Putin’s meeting in Alaska

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When Trump Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin In Alaska Friday For them High risk meeting About the war in Ukraine, the two leaders will bring different ideas about completion War Russia has started more than three years ago. At the same time, Ukraine will watch from abroad with European allies, in the hope that Mr. Trump will protect their interests.

Their meetings are expected to be compatible with a rare joint press conference with the world’s leaders – the first event of its kind since the summit of 2018 in Helsinki, when Mr. Trump by With Putin on his intelligence agencies on Russian intervention in the 2016 elections.

Expectations before the meeting

Mr. Trump tried to reduce expectations at the meeting, and told reporters the previous day, “All I want to do is set the schedule for the next meeting, which should happen soon.” The subsequent meeting is an idea that he was floating this week, and he said that it would also include Ukrainian President Voludmir Zelinski and possibly other allies. The president possibly sparked Zelinski in Alaska within two days.

White House journalist Caroline Levitt referred to talks with Putin as a “listening exercise” for Mr. Trump and said that his goal “is to stay away from a better understanding of how to end this war.”

There are a number of questions that enter the summit – the most important of which is what Russia wants, and whether there is a way to reconcile its demands for what Ukraine wants. We and their Russian counterparts spoke, and Mr. Trump and Putin have held their phone conversations.

Trump's relationship with Putin

The file-President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived to create one in the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018.

Pablo Martinez Monsivis / AP


In March, Ukraine Agreed To a 30 -day ceasefire proposal supported by the United States, and months later, in May, when the Kremlin did not accept the terms, Foreign Minister Marco Rubio said that the United States was trying to know if Russia only was.Click on us along

By July, the losses were escalating in Ukraine while Russia escalated Bombing With hundreds of missile strikes and drones. Mr. Trump gave Putin a Final date of 50 days To agree to a deal to end the war, and later summarized it to a The deadline for 10 daysThreatening harsh definitions and secondary penalties. Dmitry Medvedev, the former president of Russia, responded with the sarcasm of Mr. Trump On x. “Every new warning poses a threat and a step towards war,” he said, warning that it will not be “between Russia and Ukraine, but with the country of Trump.”

But a day before the end of the 10-day presidential deadline-and after Putin met with our special envoy Steve Witkeov-the Kremlin announced that Putin and Mr. Trump would meet.

Mr. Trump on Wednesday He said There will be “very serious consequences” for Russia if you do not agree to end the war after Friday’s meeting, although he rejected the details.

He met Zelenskyy and EuropEan Partners with Mr. Trump on Wednesday, and then Zelenskyy Books on x: “With our partners, we supported the efforts of US President Donald Trump to end the war, stop the killings, and achieve a just and lasting peace. I am grateful to the partners on our common position: the way to peace.”

European leaders were wary of Trump’s meeting. “The most important thing is that Europe convinces Donald Trump that one cannot trust in Russia,” said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Wednesday from the summit. There will be no zlenskyy to represent the interests of Ukraine, and Mr. Trump has shown that he is sometimes hesitant to criticize Putin.

What Russia wants

Experts say Putin has many goals that the United States and Ukraine will not share, and Mr. Trump must exercise caution.

Bradley Bowman, the first director of the Defense Center for Democrats on Military and Political Authority, said that Putin loves to see the United States stop its financial support for Ukraine.

“He wants to Shamus the power of the United States so that he can more effectively prey on Ukraine,” Bowman said, adding that at the same time, Putin will try to make the invasion look like a wicked. ” While Mr. Trump aims to end the war that Russia began, Putin is likely to try to seize Mr. Trump’s peace.

“Some peace agreements are bad because they lead to more war.”

John Loew, a co -fellow of Russia and Eurasia, and the British thought pin, Chatham House, expected that “Russia will put something in front of (Trump) who will buy and say,” This is a way out of the war, and I love it, and I am now ready to go to the Ukrainians again, and we will get it on the line. ”

But Loew also believes that for Russia, the meeting is “high risk.”

“They may not get what they want, but at least they hope to direct the next stage of the process of accessing Ukraine to the table, and I assume, negotiations in a framework that comes,” Loew said.

Loew said that Russia wants to “obtain the peace agreement framework, then talk about a ceasefire, while Ukraine and its allies, and to some extent, President Trump said,” No, we start with a ceasefire and then build about that. “

Ukraine map shows the lands that Russia demands

The map of Ukraine that shows the regions demanded by Russia as well as the Russian regional progress as of August 12, 2025.

Drawing by Guillermo Rivas Pacheco, Jean-Michel Cornu/AFP via Getty Images


Daniel Farid, a former Ambassador in Poland and former Foreign Minister for European and Palfation, believes that Putin may try to include a wedge between the United States and its allies.

Farid said in a press call on Wednesday: “He wants to get out of this meeting without any cost and to be cut in the American position and may come out until there is a gap between him and Zelinsky, Trump and Europeans.”

After the most doubtful comments date for Mr. Trump about Putin has been set since the meeting, Farid said: “I am less worried about that than I was three days ago.”

Farid, a fellow of the Atlantic Council, said that for Putin, the great result will be “dazzling” Mr. Trump with a fake show and moving away with a big smile.

In the talks in June, the Kremlin presented a memorandum that provides two options to Ukraine for a 30 -day ceasefire, which could give some insight to Putin’s maximum demands.

The first was to ask Ukraine to withdraw its forces from four regions that Russia annexed illegally, but it was not fully controlled by Russia: Luhansk, Donetsk, Jacon and Zaburisia.

The second option included a number of conditions, including the condition that Ukraine explode from its military effort, stop receiving military aid, excluding any international military forces from its territory, raising martial laws and then holding elections quickly.

As part of the peace treaty, Russia said it would require international recognition of Russian sovereignty over some of the Ukrainian lands currently occupied, including Donbas and the Crimea, and pledged by Ukraine not to join any military alliances – an end to its efforts to join NATO – Or allow any foreign armies to work or have bases in their lands.

Russia also said it wanted an end to the power of the armed forces in Ukraine and Russian to become an official language in Ukraine.

Windy Sherman, the former deputy foreign minister who sat by Putin before, said that the Russian leader has no real interest in ending this war – he is simply “at the time of purchase.”

“This is the meeting of President Putin,” Sherman CBS News said Wednesday. “He is really responsible for this meeting. He asked him.

What Ukraine wants

Ukraine wants to end Russia’s assault and full withdrawal from their lands.

“There must be a sincere end to the war. This depends on Russia,” Zelinski said on social media earlier this month. “It is Russia, which must end the war that started.”

Mr. Trump said earlier this week that the ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine will include “some of the lands that are replaced. I know that through Russia and through talks with everyone. To good, for Ukraine. Good things, not bad things. Also, some bad things for both.”

This prompted a response from Zelinski, who said that Ukraine would not abandon any of its lands to Russia. The Ukraine constitution is not allowed to formally waive parts of the country.

“We will not reward Russia for what it committed,” Zelinski said on a social networking site last week. “The answer to the Ukrainian regional question is already in the Ukraine constitution. No one will deviate from this – and no one will be able to do so. The Ukrainians will not bring their land to the occupier.”

Ukrainian President Voludmir Zelinski with German Chancellor Fredchich Mirz

Ukrainian President Voludmir Zelinski, to the left, with German Chancellor Fredesh Mirz after a virtual meeting with European leaders and President Trump on August 13, 2025 in Berlin.

Omer Messenger / Getty Images


Despite these statements, John Hervs, the first director of the Eurasia Center of the Atlantic Council, said that Zelinski has proven ready to settle.

“There is no doubt that Zelinski realizes that regional concessions may be required for a solid peace,” Herbet said.

The other main concern is whether Putin, with his deep knowledge of Ukraine, could try to manipulate Mr. Trump.

Ukrainian ambassador to the United States Oksana Marcarova CBS News said “We all understand the reality on the ground, and we are ready to discuss how to end this war.” “Let’s stop killings, and let us reach diplomacy.”

The history of Ukraine and the turbulent Russia

Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union before voting for independence in 1991.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the NATO alliance expanded east, adding previous Soviet republics, including Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, and established a close partnership with Ukraine. In 2008, the coalition announced its intention to Ukraine to join NATO at some point in the future.

Putin said on several occasions that he is looking at NATO as a threat to Russia. He also said he believed that Ukraine is part of Russia politically, culturally and linguistically.

Some Ukrainians, primarily in the eastern regions, speak between Russian and feel closely with Russia from the nation of Ukraine. But the majority of Ukrainians speak Ukrainian, feel a deep national relationship with Ukraine and preferred to develop closer relations with Europe.

Wide -scale protests in Ukraine erupted in 2014 when the Russian pro -President refused at the time the signing of the European Union Agreement. General anger forced him to his position – a clear victory for the Ukrainians who preferred close relations with Europe. But shortly after, Russia included the Crimea, an internationally recognized peninsula as part of Ukraine, and the Kremlin supported a separatist rebellion supporting Russia in eastern Ukraine.

In 2022, Russia launched a large -scale invasion of Ukraine, to attack cities throughout the country, including the capital, Kiev. Some expected Russia to take over, but the Ukrainians have fought hard to defend themselves, and have gained Russian gains to a large extent behind the front lines in the east, and the war ended since then.



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