{"id":160771,"date":"2025-08-15T15:25:54","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-putin-summit-live-trump-posts-two-word-message-ahead-of-meeting-on-ukraine-the-independent\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T15:25:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:25:54","slug":"trump-putin-summit-live-trump-posts-two-word-message-ahead-of-meeting-on-ukraine-the-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-putin-summit-live-trump-posts-two-word-message-ahead-of-meeting-on-ukraine-the-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump-Putin summit live: Trump posts two-word message ahead of meeting on Ukraine – The Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Trump suggests other European leaders, including Zelensky, could be invited to a second meeting following today\u2019s summit
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U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> has billed his summit with Vladimir Putin<\/a> as \u201chigh stakes\u201d as he flies to Anchorage<\/a>, Alaska<\/a>, for their first one-on-one meeting in seven years.
Trump is set to greet Putin when he exits his plane in Alaska at roughly 11 a.m. local time (3 p.m. E.T.), Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Russian state television.
Russian and U.S. delegations began arriving in the city on Friday, with footage showing Trump boarding Air Force One<\/a> at Joint Base Andrews<\/a> in Maryland<\/a> before its departure. On Truth Social<\/a>, Trump posted a blunt two-word warning: \u201cHIGH STAKES!!!\u201d
Meanwhile, Russia\u2019s veteran foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov<\/a>, was spotted in Anchorage in a vintage USSR sweatshirt<\/a>. He told reporters Moscow<\/a> \u201cnever plans ahead\u201d \u2013 a remark that added to the uncertainty surrounding the talks.
Trump has vowed that the Russian president is \u201cnot going to mess around with me\u201d as he attempts to secure a ceasefire deal<\/a>. He also floated the possibility of bringing in European leaders, including Ukraine<\/a>\u2019s Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a>, for a second round of negotiations.
The White House<\/a> said Friday\u2019s programme will include a one-on-one meeting between the two presidents, a bilateral lunch with their delegations, and a joint press conference.
Here\u2019s a rundown of Trump\u2019s and Putin\u2019s meetings during Trump\u2019s first stint as U.S. president.
Trump and Putin first met at the G-20 summit in Hamburg just months into Trump\u2019s first term. The meeting took place following allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election to undermine Trump\u2019s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
Then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also attended the meeting. Lavrov is also present in Alaska for Friday\u2019s talks.
Tillerson subsequently said that Trump asked Putin twice if the claims that Russia interfered in the election were true, with Putin rejecting the allegations both times.
The meeting was set to last for 35 minutes, but went on for more than two hours, as they discussed the Syrian war, North Korea, cybersecurity, and other issues.
Trump and Putin also spoke during a dinner for G-20 leaders, a meeting that wasn\u2019t disclosed at the time.
Trump and Putin met briefly during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Danang, Vietnam, after the White House announced that they wouldn\u2019t have a formal sit-down meeting, pointing to scheduling issues.
They smiled, shook hands, and posed for the group photo during the summit.
During a joint press conference at a summit between the two leaders in Helsinki, Finland, Trump seemed to side with the Russian leader over his own intelligence community as he appeared to accept Putin\u2019s denials that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
At the summit, Putin and Trump spoke alone for two hours with only their interpreters present. Trump was seen winking at Putin at least twice during the summit.
Trump would later claim that he misspoke during the summit and that he accepted the view of the intelligence community that Russia interfered in the election. But he added that it \u201ccould be other people also\u201d \u2014 a view not supported by evidence.
At the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Trump and Putin spoke briefly. Still, the U.S. president mostly kept his distance from the Russian leader amid the Department of Justice\u2019s probe into Russia\u2019s interference in the election.
At the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, some months after the release of the Mueller report into Russian election interference, the two leaders appeared to have a friendly rapport.
Putin said the two had not had a formal meeting since the Helsinki summit and that their meeting in Japan would be a \u201cgreat opportunity to follow up on that.\u201d
Asked by reporters about the investigation, Trump told Putin with a smile, \u201cDon\u2019t meddle in the election.\u201d
Watch live as Donald Trump<\/a> and Vladimir Putin<\/a> hold \u201chigh stakes\u201d talks on Ukraine<\/a> in Alaska<\/a> on Friday (15 August).
The Anchorage summit, which will be held at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, will mark the US<\/a> president and Russian leader\u2019s first one-on-one meeting in six years.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a>, who is notably absent from the discussions, said that he is \u201ccounting on America\u201d to \u201copen a real path toward a just peace\u201d.
Read more:<\/strong>
Trump took to Truth Social on Friday to praise the \u201chighly respected\u201d authoritarian leader of Belarus.
\u201cI had a wonderful talk with the highly respected President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko,\u201d said Trump. \u201cThe purpose of the call was to thank him for the release of 16 prisoners. We are also discussing the release of 1,300 additional prisoners.\u201d
\u201cOur conversation was a very good one. We discussed many topics, including President Putin\u2019s visit to Alaska,\u201d he added. \u201cI look forward to meeting President Lukashenko in the future. Thank you for your attention to this matter!\u201d
Trump is set to greet Putin when he exits his plane in Alaska at roughly 11 a.m. local time (3 p.m. E.T.), Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Russian state television.
Donald Trump\u2019s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska has dominated politics in Europe since it was announced more than a week ago.
Keir Starmer has spent the intervening days locked in discussions with other European leaders as they battle to influence a summit that could define the future of peace on the edge of the continent.
On Thursday, he also hosted President Zelensky in Downing Street, the latest in a string of public shows of unity behind Ukraine\u2019s right to decide its own future.
But don\u2019t expect an immediate response from the British government to tonight\u2019s US-Russia summit.
Instead, The Independent <\/em>understands the UK will respond on Saturday morning.
It is thought likely that this will come after the prime minister has calls with other European leaders.
With an unpredictable President in the White House, No. 10 has been wargaming possible outcomes to these talks. But it still may take time to make sense of what unfolds in the next few hours.
Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev took to X to joke that the Russian delegation is being \u201coutnumbered\u201d by the Americans after noting the size of the U.S. presence.
Dmitriev noted on Friday morning that the White House delegation includes Marco Rubio, Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick, Steve Witkoff, Karoline Leavitt, John Ratcliffe, Susie Wiles, and Dan Scavino.
\u201cAmbush. Our delegation is outnumbered,\u201d he later added<\/a>.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he\u2019s not trying to end the war in Ukraine to improve his \u201chealth.\u201d
\u201cI\u2019m not doing this for my health. Okay, I don\u2019t need it,\u201d he said on the way to Alaska, according to CNN. \u201cI\u2019d like to focus on our country, but I\u2019m doing this to save a lot of lives.\u201d
He reiterated that there would be \u201cvery severe\u201d economic consequences for Russia if Putin doesn\u2019t agree to a deal to end the fighting.
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
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Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged inNext articleTrump suggests other European leaders, including Zelensky, could be invited to a second meeting following today\u2019s summitFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":160772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}