Trump and Putin to meet in Alaska for Ukraine war talks

Leaders due to have first face-to-face discussions since 2019

- ANDREA SHALAL

Donald Trump will meet with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. Mr Trump made the highly anticipated announcement on social media after he said that the parties, including Volodymyr Zelensky, were close to a ceasefire deal that could resolve the three-and-a-half-year conflict.

Addressing reporters at the White House earlier yesterday, Mr Trump suggested an agreement would involve some exchange of land. "There'll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both," the president said.

The Kremlin subsequently confirmed the summit in an online statement. The two leaders will “focus on discussing options for achieving a long-term peaceful resolution to the Ukrainian crisis,” Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said. “This will evidently be a challenging process, but we will engage in it actively and energetically,” Mr Ushakov added.

In his evening address to the nation yesterday, Mr Zelenskiy said it was possible to achieve a ceasefire as long as adequate pressure was applied to Russia. He said he had held more than a dozen conversations with leaders of different countries and his team was in constant contact with the United States.