US President Donald Trump says will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.
The meeting next Friday is a potential major milestone after expressing weeks of frustration that more was not being done to quell the fighting.
Speaking to reporters at the White House after announcing a framework aimed at ending decades of conflict elsewhere in the world — between Armenia and Azerbaijan — Trump refused to say exactly when or where he would meet with Putin, but that he planned to announce a location soon.
Later on social media, he announced what he called "the highly anticipated meeting" would happen August 15 in Alaska. He said more details would follow. The Kremlin has not yet confirmed the details.
He suggested earlier on Friday that his meeting with the Russian leader could come before any sit-down discussion involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"We're going to have a meeting with Russia, start off with Russia. And we'll announce a location. I think the location will be a very popular one," Trump said.
He added: "It would have been sooner, but I guess there's security arrangements that unfortunately people have to make. Otherwise I'd do it much quicker. He would, too. He'd like to meet as soon as possible. I agree with it. But we'll be announcing that very shortly."
If it happens, the meeting would be the first US-Russia summit since 2021, when former president Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva. It could mean a breakthrough in Trump's effort to end the war, although there's no guarantee it would stop the fighting since Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on their conditions for peace.
Still, Trump said, "President Putin, I believe, wants to see peace, and Zelenskyy wants to see peace." He said that, "In all fairness to President Zelenskyy, he's getting everything he needs to, assuming we get something done."
Trump also said that a peace deal would likely mean "there will be some swapping of territories" between Ukraine and Russia but didn't provide further details.
Trump said of territory generally "we're looking to get some back and some swapping. It's complicated."
"Nothing easy," the president said.
"But we're gonna get some back. We're gonna get some switched. There'll be some swapping of territories, to the betterment of both."
Analysts, including some close to the Kremlin, have suggested that Russia could offer to give up territory it controls outside of the four regions it claims to have annexed.
Pressed on if this was the last chance to make a major peace deal, Trump said, "I don't like using the term last chance," and said that, "When those guns start going off, it's awfully tough to get them to stop."
Exasperated that Putin did not heed his calls to stop bombing Ukrainian cities, Trump almost two weeks ago moved up his ultimatum to impose additional sanctions on Russia and introduce secondary tariffs targeting countries that buy Russian oil if the Kremlin did not move toward a settlement. The deadline was Friday.
Prior to his announcing the meeting with Putin, Trump's efforts to pressure Russia into stopping the fighting have so far delivered no progress. The Kremlin's bigger army is slowly advancing deeper into Ukraine at great cost in troops and armour while it relentlessly bombards Ukrainian cities. Russia and Ukraine are far apart on their terms for peace.
Ukrainian troops say they are ready to keep fighting.