On the 15th (local time), U.S. President Donald Trump headed to Alaska for a summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This meeting aims to end the ongoing war in Ukraine, now in its 3 years and 6 months, and global attention is focused on whether the two sides can agree to a ceasefire.
According to U.S. media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), President Trump left the White House that morning and boarded Air Force One at Andrews Joint Base near Washington, D.C. Just before departure, President Trump posted a short message on his social media platform "Truth Social" stating it was "high stakes."
According to the White House, this visit includes key foreign policy and security aides such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) John Ratcliffe. Steve Witkoff, Special Envoy to the Middle East, also joined the delegation. Special Envoy Witkoff has met directly with President Putin multiple times to mediate an end to the war since the start of Trump's second administration and held talks in Moscow just last week. Other attendees included Susan Wiles, Chief of Staff at the White House, Stephen Chung, Director of Public Affairs, and Karoline Leavitt, Spokesperson for the White House.
If a ceasefire is reached during this summit, President Trump reportedly plans to immediately hold a tripartite meeting involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky or a multilateral meeting with European leaders to begin "discussions on ending the war."
The summit will take place at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska's largest city. According to the White House, the meeting is expected to start around 3 p.m. Eastern Time. The results of the meeting are likely to be announced in a joint press conference or in separate statements.