Tomorrow President Trump will meet with Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska. It’s a long trip—more than 4,000 miles—for a long-standing goal: obtaining a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. And the summit was organized in a hurry. That it’s happening at all is a surprise—a classic Trump shocker that overturns the chessboard.
What’s he planning? And why has the Russian president agreed to his first non-UN-related visit to the United States since 2007, his first in-person talk with Trump since 2018, and his first meeting with a U.S. president since 2021?
“This is really a feel-out meeting,” Trump told reporters Monday at the White House.
His plan, he said, was simple: Listen to Putin and decide if a deal is possible. If not, America walks away
“I’m going to go and see the parameters now,” Trump said at the press conference. “I may leave and say, ‘Good luck,’ and that’ll be the end. I may say this is not going to be settled.” Trump added that he would call Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders after the meeting.
“I’m not going to make a deal. It’s not up to me to make a deal.”
His announcement caught Europe off guard. Russia’s war on Ukraine has lasted over a decade; the full-scale invasion began in February 2022. Since Trump took office in January, special envoy Steve Witkoff has met Putin in Moscow five times. Only after the most recent meeting, on August 6, did Trump hail “great progress”—without giving much detail—and start packing.
