Donald Trump will meet Vladimir Putin on August 15 in the American state of Alaska, he announced on his network on Friday, Truth Social, a summit intended to discuss a regulation of the war in Ukraine which will include, according to the American president, territorial concessions.
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Trump, who has repeatedly promised to put an end to this conflict, has discussed several times on the phone with his Russian counterpart in recent months, but has not seen him in person since his return to the White House in January.
Rather than in neutral terrain, the meeting will take place in the vast and wild state of Alaska, in the far northwest of the American continent and near Russia, a territory that the latter gave in America to the XIXe century.
The Kremlin described this choice of “fairly logical” and said that he invited the American president to visit Russia after the summit.
It will be the first tête-à-tête between the two leaders since that of June 2019 in Japan, which took place a year after a summit in Helsinki during which Donald Trump adopted a tone resolutely reconciling with the strong man of the Kremlin.
Mr. Putin has not walked American soil since 2015, under the chairmanship of Barack Obama.
This eagerly awaited meeting will therefore take place without the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who continues to demand to have a voice.
Photo AFP
“Exchanges of territories”
The American president, interviewed earlier Friday, knowing whether Ukraine will have to make territorial concessions, replied that “there would be exchanges of territories for the benefit of each”, without giving details.
“We are talking about a territory on which fights have been raging for over three and a half years. […] It’s complicated, it’s really not easy, but we’re going to recover a game, “he added to the White House alongside the Azerbaijan and Armenian leaders, who had just signed a peace agreement.
Moscow claims that Ukraine gives him four partially occupied regions (Donetsk, Lougansk, Zaporijjia and Kherson) in addition to the Crimea annexed in 2014 and that it renounces Western arms deliveries and any membership in NATO.
Unacceptable requirements for Kyiv, which require the withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory and Western security guarantees, including the pursuit of arms deliveries and the deployment of a European contingent, to which Russia is opposed.
Speaking of the meeting with the Russian president, “it could have been done earlier, but I suppose there are unfortunately security measures to take,” said President Trump.
Vladimir Putin spoke to him on Friday on the phone with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
These developments arise as the American president launched an ultimatum to Russia last week, which expired on Friday, to advance negotiations with Kyiv under penalty of being imposed on new American sanctions.
Maximalist requests
The Russian offensive on a large scale against Ukraine, launched in February 2022, made tens of thousands of deaths in both countries at least and caused immense destruction.
After more than three years of fighting, the Ukrainian and Russian positions are still irreconcilable. Russia is accused of blocking talks by maintaining maximalist requests, at a time when its forces have the advantage on the front and continue to gain ground.
The last cycle of direct negotiations between the two belligerents in Istanbul in July only led to a new exchange of prisoners and soldier’s bodies.
In an attempt to get things done, the American emissary Steve Witkoff was received this week at the Kremlin by Vladimir Putin, which allowed a diplomatic acceleration marked by the announcement Thursday by Moscow of a “agreement in principle” for a next summit between the American and Russian leaders.
In recent times, Donald Trump said he was repeatedly “very disappointed” by his Russian counterpart due to the absence of advances in the negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow.
On the ground, the Russian army continues its deadly air attacks on Ukraine and its assaults on the front, where its soldiers are more numerous and better equipped.
Ukraine asks, in concert with its European allies, a 30-day ceasefire, which the Russians refuse.