Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin wants to “make a deal” as he floats holding a trilateral meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Alaska and “maybe” inviting European leaders. A Russian government plane landed in the US earlier ahead of tomorrow’s Trump-Putin summit. Follow live updates below.
Thursday 14 August 2025 20:00, UK
Donald Trump will meet Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson tomorrow.
Here’s a look at the US military installation in Anchorage – the largest city in Alaska.
Donald Trump is “all over the place” ahead of his meeting with Vladimir Putin, our US correspondent James Matthews has said.
“It’s difficult to get a fix on whether or not one can be optimistic or pessimistic going into this meeting.”
Matthews explains that tomorrow’s meeting started out as a peace summit, but has since been reduced to a “listening exercise” by the White House.
He said that the concern in Ukraine is that Trump is presented with a plan by Putin that he feels duty bound to accept “for his own reasons”.
“Then, of course, we have a fallout whereby Ukraine is blamed, certainly by Russia, for a continuing conflict and Putin will encourage Trump to blame Ukraine along with him,” he added.
Watch the full analysis below.
Donald Trump has been asked whether Vladimir Putin has a “strong hand” tomorrow.
“Well, he came to our country,” Trump replies.
He tells reporters that he thinks Putin “would like to see a deal”.
“I think if I weren’t president, he would take over all of Ukraine, it’s a war that should have never happened.
“If I weren’t president, in my opinion, he would much rather take over all of Ukraine but I am president and he’s not going to mess around with me.”
Trump also floated Alaska as the host for the second meeting, which he says he would like to happen “very quickly”.
Donald Trump is asked another question about his meeting with Vladimir Putin, and whether the summit itself or incentives for peace reward Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
“I think that we have a situation that should never have started, it should never have started,” Trump says, dodging the question.
“It didn’t start under me, and for four years it wasn’t even discussed.
“I could see it was going to happen, after I left I could see what was happening… everybody’s to blame, Putin is to blame, they’re all to blame.”
Donald Trump has been asked about his meeting with Vladimir Putin tomorrow, and whether he is prepared to offer Putin access to rare minerals to incentivise him to end the war in Ukraine.
“We’re going to see what happens, we have a big meeting,” he says.
“I think it’s going to be very important for Russia, and it’s going to be very important for us that we’re going to save a lot of lives.”
Trump reiterates that he is meeting Putin “to save thousands of soldiers a week”.
Referring to tomorrow’s meeting, he says:”I think it’s going to be good”.
“But the more important meeting will be the second meeting that we’re having, we’re going to have a meeting with President Putin, President Zelenskyy, myself and maybe we’ll bring some of the European leaders, maybe not.”
Trump tells reporters he thinks Putin and Zelenskyy “will make peace”.
Donald Trump has been speaking about social security in the US, and has just signed a proclamation marking the 90th anniversary of the Social Security Act.
He now opens the floor to questions and could be asked about his meeting with Vladimir Putin tomorrow.
Stay with us as we’ll bring you live updates. A reminder, you can watch along in the stream at the top of this page.
Donald Trump is speaking from the Oval Office on the eve of his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
While the US president is giving remarks on the 90th anniversary of the Social Security Act, his news conferences are often wide-ranging and he could be asked about tomorrow’s summit by reporters.
You can watch live at the top of this page or follow all the key updates here.
A Ukrainian MP has told Sky News he has “no big expectations” ahead of Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska tomorrow.
“We have had a number of similar emotions, five or six times before when Trump was announcing personal contacts with Putin,” Andrii Osadchuk told our presenter Gareth Barlow.
“All these attempts brought nothing, nothing at all.
“After each telephone conversation, Putin was launching missiles on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.”
Osadchuk explained that he “definitely welcomes” Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine, but said he was not very optimistic about the upcoming talks.
Watch the full interview below.
We’ve told you that Russia and Ukraine have exchanged 84 prisoners each – see our 13.00 post for more details.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said they include Ukrainian civilians held in Russia since 2014, 2016 and 2017.
Watch the moment they arrived back in Ukraine in the video below.
Vladimir Putin will travel to the “belly of the beast” when he meets Donald Trump in Alaska tomorrow, a former NATO deputy secretary general has said.
Rose Gottemoeller told our presenter Gareth Barlow that the fact the Russian president asked for the meeting is “very interesting”.
“He is flying across 11 time zones to a US military base bristling with defences against Russia,” she said.
“Normally, a summit meeting would be on neutral territory somewhere where each delegation and each president has a standing, but not in this case.”
Asked about what the best outcome could be, Gottemoeller said she “would love” to see Trump and Putin announce immediate talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with the goal of establishing an immediate peace process.
But she warned the worst scenario is Trump announcing he and Putin have “sold Ukraine down the river”.
Watch the full interview below.
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