President Donald Trump announced Friday that he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska next week.
Trump made the announcement on Truth Social, saying more details would follow.
The Aug. 15 meeting will be the first between Putin and President Trump since he returned to office.
The announcement of the meeting came on the deadline President Trump set for Russia to negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine or potentially face economic consequences such as so-called secondary tariffs.
The president, for months, has been trying to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. The two countries have been at war since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Earlier Friday, President Trump suggested a potential ceasefire agreement could involve swapping territories. It is unclear whether Ukraine would support such a framework.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country is continuing “active negotiations with partners to reach a common position for reliable peace for Ukraine,” adding that there has been constant communication with American counterparts.
Experts, meanwhile, are skeptical that Putin is serious about reaching an immediate ceasefire.
Sam Greene, director for Democratic Resilience at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said the meeting likely came about because both Trump and Putin were caught in a bind.
“The reason why we’re seeing what we’re seeing when we’re seeing it has to do with the need for both Trump and Putin to get out of a little bit of a trap that they found themselves in, right?" Greene said. "So when Trump announced this deadline, which they got moved up to today, he created a little bit of a bind, right, because Putin is not going to agree to anything just because Trump asked him to, right. He’s not going to allow that optic to take shape."
