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Former President Donald Trump announced his intention to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska next Friday to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. This announcement was made on Trump’s social media platform, Truth. Trump indicated that all parties involved, including Ukrainian President Zelensky, are nearing a ceasefire agreement to resolve the conflict that has been ongoing for three years. Earlier, speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump suggested that the agreement might involve the exchange of some territories, emphasizing that this would be for a better future. However, the Kremlin has not yet provided any information regarding the meeting, despite Trump’s social media announcement, but both parties anticipate a meeting could occur next week. This summit could mark a decisive moment in the Russia-Ukraine war, which began over three years ago. However, there’s no guarantee the fighting will cease, as Moscow and Kyiv hold significantly different views regarding the terms of peace. Trump previously hinted that any agreement could involve the exchange of some territories, but he did not elaborate. Some analysts close to the Kremlin have suggested that Russia might offer to cede territory it controls outside of the four regions it claims to have annexed. Trump had previously indicated that his meeting with Putin would precede any discussions with Ukrainian President Zelensky. This raised concerns in Europe that Ukraine might be sidelined in efforts to halt the continent’s largest conflict since World War II. Trump’s announcement of hosting an adversary on American soil disrupts expectations that he would meet Putin in a third country. This move implicitly acknowledges Putin, despite the long-standing efforts of the US and its allies to isolate him over the war in Ukraine. During the early years of Putin’s presidency, he regularly met with his American counterparts. This practice diminished as tensions between Russia and the West escalated after Moscow’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and accusations of interference in the 2016 US elections. Putin’s last visit to America was in 2015 when he attended a meeting of the US General Assembly in New York. This upcoming meeting in Alaska would be the first US-Russia summit since 2021, when former President Joe Biden met with Putin in Geneva.
