Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday gave an optimistic prediction about Friday’s Alaska summit with President Donald Trump, floating new strategic arms control agreements in the future.
Putin praised Trump’s efforts to end the fighting in Ukraine. However, Friday’s meeting will cover other areas of mutual interest between the United States and Russia.
“I would like to tell you about the stage we are at with the current American administration, which, as everyone knows, is making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the fighting, end the crisis, and reach agreements of interest to all parties involved in this conflict,” Putin said.
He added that the meeting could set the table for future strategic arms control agreements, as talks on the subject have deteriorated since the decline in U.S.-Russia relations. The last major arms control treaty between the two countries, the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, is set to expire in February 2026.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov gave further details on Friday’s Alaska summit on Thursday. The summit will feature a one-on-one meeting between the two heads of state, with only translators present, followed by a joint press conference.
In addition to Putin, Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Ushakov, and Special Envoy Kirill Dmitriev will travel to Alaska as part of the Russian delegation.
Dmitriev’s plane took off from Moscow shortly before 8 a.m., bound for Anchorage, Alaska.
Expectations for Friday’s summit at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson are mixed. Washington, D.C., and Moscow are optimistic, but Kyiv and Europe are largely worried. Trump has soothed the Europeans’ worries by saying it will be a “feel-out meeting” in which he’ll be able to “know exactly whether or not a deal can be made” within the “first two minutes.”
“I’m not going to make a deal. It’s not up to me to make a deal,” Trump said on Monday.
However, he warned on Wednesday that there will be “very severe consequences” if Putin doesn’t appear willing to end the war.
The meeting comes as Moscow and Kyiv still hold mutually exclusive preconditions for any deal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has stressed that he would never accept a deal that involved ceding territory taken by Russia, as the constitution forbids him from doing so. His European allies backed him up on this, stressing to Trump that any deal that involved ceding territory is unacceptable.
Trump has relayed his belief that a territorial transfer will likely be necessary to end the war. Russia annexed four oblasts largely seized by its forces in September 2022 after a much-scrutinized referendum.
Putin has ruled out handing over any territory in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, or Zaporozhye, as he considers this territory an inexorable part of Russia.
He’s mocked Ukraine’s stubbornness publicly, given its recent poor fortunes on the battlefield.
“Keep at it, then, keep at it. It will only get worse,” Putin said at an economic forum in June. “Wherever a Russian soldier sets his foot, it’s ours.”
Putin has also been unwilling to compromise on Russia’s conditions, including ruling out Ukrainian NATO membership and downsizing Ukraine’s military.
RUSSIA BREAKS THROUGH MAIN UKRAINIAN DEFENSIVE LINE AHEAD OF ALASKA MEETING WITH TRUMP
“I have stated Russia’s goals,” he said earlier this month. “These conditions undoubtedly remain the same.”
Putin’s forces boosted their case over the weekend, prior to Friday’s meeting. They launched an assault in the Donbas that resulted in one of the biggest breakthroughs of the war since September 2022. Ukraine has struggled to plug the gap with its strained forces.
