Reporter on site: Everything you should know about the Trump Putin summit

For the first time since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin is expected on Friday at a summit on western soil: In the US state of Alaska, he comes together with US President Donald Trump to talk about the future of Ukraine. The Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj is not invited. Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) called on serious peace efforts before the highly expected summit.

Trump already dampened expectations in advance. The two meeting with Putin on Friday can also fail, he said Fox News Radio the day before. “This meeting prepares a second meeting, but there is a risk of 25 percent that this meeting will not be a successful meeting,” Trump told the broadcaster. “The second meeting (a possible three -way summit) will be very, very important, because you will make a deal at this meeting.”

AYou can find information about the Trump Putin summit in our newsblog

The US President also seemed to come back to his proposal of a “area exchange” between Russia and Ukraine as a way to a peace solution. “I don’t want to use the term ‘divide something’,” said Trump. “But you know that this is not a bad concept for a certain extent. There will be a giving and taking at boundaries and territories.” Selenskyj decidedly rejects Ukrainian areas to Russia.

Trump later emphasized in front of journalists that he would not be intimidated by Putin. “I am president and he won’t get up with me,” said Trump. “I will know within the first two, three, four or five minutes whether it will be a good or a bad meeting,” he emphasized. “If it is a bad meeting, it will be over very quickly, and if it is a good meeting, we will reach peace in the near future.”

Trump and Putin want to meet in Anchorage in Alaska on Friday at the US military base in Elmendorf-Richardson. According to information from Moscow, the summit should begin at 11.30 a.m. local time (9:30 p.m. CEST), afterwards both heads of state should step together in front of the press. The White House initially did not confirm plans for a joint press conference.

Kremlin representative Juri Uschakow said in advance that direct discussions should first take place between Trump and Putin, in which only translators should take part. After that, the delegations of the two states should negotiate. According to Selenskyj, Trump wants to inform the Ukrainian president by phone after meeting Putin.

Chancellor Merz called Putin on Friday to take Trump’s offer of talk seriously. “Three and a half years after the attack on Ukraine contrary to international law, Russia today has the opportunity to agree to an armistice and hire hostility,” said the Federal Chancellor. “We expect President Putin to take President Trump’s offer of discussion seriously and to enter negotiations with Ukraine without conditions after the meeting in Alaska.”

The goal must be a summit in which Selenskyj also takes part. “A ceasefire has to be agreed there. Ukraine needs strong security guarantees. Territorial questions can only be decided with the consent of the Ukrainians,” emphasized Merz.

Efforts for a ceasefire in Ukraine after three and a half years of war have so far been unsuccessful. Moscow demands from Kiev to fully cede the four Ostucrainian regions of Saporischschja, Donetsk, Luhansk and Cherson, as well as the Crimean peninsula, which are annexed by Russia, and also to do without western military aid and NATO accession. Ukraine rejects these demands as unacceptable and demands western security guarantees.