Trump-Putin assembly reside updates as leaders maintain talks in Alaska over ending Ukraine battle

Employees at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson have ready a stage with the backdrop “Pursuing Peace” within the room the place the 2 leaders are anticipated to take questions after the talks. Two lecterns with the seal of the U.S. are flanked by Russian and American flags, with rows of seats for the media:

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the one-on-one Trump-Putin meeting, which was originally only going to include translators, will now also include U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 

For an expanded bilateral meeting and lunch to follow, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and chief of staff Susie Wiles will join Rubio and Witkoff. 

White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino snapped a photo of Witkoff and Rubio speaking on Air Force One on the flight to Alaska.

The presence of Rubio and Witkoff may help ease the minds of outside some experts and Europeans who were wary of Mr. Trump being alone in a room with Putin, a former KGB officer. 

Air Force One landed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson at 10:22 a.m. local time (2:22 p.m. Eastern), after a little over six hours in the air. 

The president is expected to greet Putin once the Russian leader arrives. 

On the tarmac, a lengthy red carpet is flanked by four fighter jets, leading to a platform with “Alaska 2025” written on the front:

Ukraine wants an end to Russia’s assault and its full withdrawal from their territory.

“There must be an honest end to the war. And it depends on Russia,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media earlier this month. “It is Russia that must end the war it started.”

Mr. Trump said earlier this week that a ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine would involve “some land swapping going on. I know that through Russia and through conversations with everybody. To the good, for the good of Ukraine. Good stuff, not bad stuff. Also, some bad stuff for both.”

That prompted a response from Zelenskyy, who said Ukraine would not give up any of its territory to Russia. Ukraine’s constitution does not allow him to formally cede parts of the country.

“We will not reward Russia for what it has perpetrated,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post last weekend. “The answer to the Ukrainian territorial question already is in the Constitution of Ukraine. No one will deviate from this — and no one will be able to. Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier.”

Despite such statements, John Herbst, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, said Zelenskyy has demonstrated he’s willing to compromise. 

“There is no doubt in my mind that Zelenskyy understands that territorial concessions may be required to get a durable peace,” Herbst said.

Read more here.

The Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, delivered a speech ahead of the meeting between Mr. Trump and Putin.

“Nothing can influence the development of human civilization as much as the state of (U.S.-Russia) relations. If they develop positively, then peace on the planet is ensured, and therefore the conditions for the progressive development of human civilization are also ensured,” he said.  “If there is no peace, if, God forbid, there is a threat of a nuclear conflict, which will entail the destruction of not only the participants in this conflict, but probably the entire human civilization, then we will come closer to nothing less than the most difficult and tragic end of the existence of the human race.”

Patriarch Kirill stressed the global threat posed by any possible direct nuclear conflict between the United States and Russia, saying he believed it appeared both leaders appeared ready to develop stronger relations.

He said his congregations should pray “that the result of these negotiations would truly bring hope to people and create the preconditions for an even more dynamic development of relations between our countries, and not only between our countries, but also between Russia and the Western world.”

Earlier this morning on the flight to Alaska, Mr. Trump told reporters he doesn’t know what specifically would make today’s summit a success.

“There’s nothing set in stone,” he said. “I want certain things. I want to see a ceasefire.”

He continued, “Everyone said it can’t be today, but I’m just saying I want the killing to stop. I’m in this to stop the killing.” 

Regarding talks about territory, the president said it would be discussed, “but I’ve got to let Ukraine make that decision, and I think they’ll make a proper decision.” He said that he would not be negotiating on Ukraine’s behalf. “I’m here to get them at a table,” he said, a reference to the possibility of a subsequent summit that would involve Russia, Ukraine and possibly other European countries.

Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny who died in February 2024 while being held in a Russian prison, said that Putin and Mr. Trump should use their meeting to agree on a prisoner exchange.

“We do not know, and you do not know, how everything will turn out after your negotiations. Maybe the results will have an impact on something. Maybe they will be forgotten in a week. But there’s a way to make sure that they go down in history anyway, so the Alaska summit will be historic no matter how events unfold,” Navalnaya said in a video statement released early Friday, hours before the Trump-Putin summit was due to start. “To do this, we need to do something irreversible. Something that can’t disappear the next day due to some geopolitical considerations, namely: hold a new round of prisoner exchange.”

Navalnaya said that the one-on-one meeting offered a unique opportunity for such an exchange, and that there would then be “no need for two years of shuttle diplomacy. I — you — know better than anyone in the world what delays in such matters are fraught with. You can simply exchange lists and release people. I know that such lists have already been prepared.”

Navalnaya called for the release of “Russian activists and journalists, Ukrainian civilians, those who are in prison for antiwar statements and posts on social networks. After all, you yourselves are negotiating to end the war, so why should people who demanded exactly the same thing sit in prison? No matter how much more negotiation is required, this step will go down in history anyway. Just do it.”

In an interview with Fox News on Air Force One, the president told anchor Bret Baier that he is prepared to walk away from the meeting if it does not go well.

“We’re going for a meeting with President Putin in Alaska. And I think it’s going to work out very well and if it doesn’t, I’m going to head back home real fast,” he said. 

“I mean, if it doesn’t, you walk?” Baier asked, according to Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich.

“I would walk, yeah,” the president replied.

Dmitry Peskov, the top spokesman for the Kremlin, told Russian media that Putin is scheduled to land in Alaska at 11 a.m. local time, or 3 p.m. EDT, and that “President Trump will be there to meet him at the plane.”

“Although, of course, the main focus will be on the issue of Ukrainian settlement, there is also the list of irritants in our bilateral relations, possible economic cooperation projects, all aspects of the Ukrainian settlement, and key points on regional and international issues,” Peskov said in Russian.

Peskov also said the talks could take six or seven hours, according to Russian outlet RIA Novosti. He said the two leaders would meet with aides present.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, Republican of Alaska, talked with CBS News’ Margaret Brennan Thursday about why his state is “the appropriate place” for the Trump-Putin summit. 

Putin, he said, “understands one thing … strength and power. And my state exudes strength and power with a huge military here.” He pointed out that the U.S. is conducting military exercises in Alaska this month. U.S. Northern Command and NORAD will be in the state all month for training exercises that also include the U.K. and Denmark.

“I hope Vladimir Putin sees a lot of that military power in the next couple of days,” he told Brennan, in an interview that will air on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday. “Unleashing American energy, which the President is doing. That’s the weapon that Putin fears probably more than anything, when we can compete with them.” 

Sullivan also suggested that the locale is a good way of “reminding the Russians that we are quite good negotiators.” 

“You know, last time we had a big deal with Russia in America, about my state, we got this great state for two cents an acre, $7.2 million, probably the deal of the century,” Sullivan said. “And I think the Russians — I think the Russians probably have to remember that, too.”

• What: President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in Alaska
• Date: Friday, Aug. 15, 2025 
• Time: Coverage throughout the day. The leaders are expected to meet at around 3 p.m. EDT and hold a news conference after talks conclude, but an official schedule has not yet been announced.
• Location: Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska
• On TV: Watch Special Reports and the “CBS Evening News,” anchored from Alaska, on CBS television stations (find your local station here).
• Online stream: Watch live coverage on CBS News 24/7 in the video player above and on your mobile or streaming device.

The CBS News team in Anchorage for the summit includes “CBS Evening News” anchor John Dickerson; “Face the Nation” moderator and chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan; chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes; and White House reporter Willie James Inman. Senior foreign correspondent Debora Patta joins from London.

Coverage will also include insights and analysis from CBS News contributors including former U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan;  former Homeland Security official Samantha Vinograd; and Lt. Gen. HR McMaster, former national security adviser to President Trump.

In the days leading up to the Trump-Putin summit, Russian forces breached Ukrainian lines in a series of infiltrations in the country’s industrial heartland of Donetsk. Though the advances amount to only a limited success for Russia, which has not yet been able to consolidate these gains, analysts say, it’s a potentially dangerous moment for Ukraine.

“The key risk for Ukraine is that the Kremlin will try to turn certain local gains on the battlefield into strategic victories at the negotiating table,” said Mykola Bieleskov, a senior analyst at CBA Initiatives Center.

Asked about Russia’s continued military offensive as he headed to Alaska Friday morning, Mr. Trump said Putin is “trying to set a stage. I mean, in his mind, that helps him make a better deal. It actually hurts him, but in his mind, that helps him make a better deal, if they can continue the killing.”

Read more here.

The two leaders are expected to meet at around 11 a.m. local time, or 3 p.m. EDT. Alaska is four hours behind Eastern Time. The full timing of all the day’s events has not yet been announced, but a spokesman for the Kremlin said the talks could last six or seven hours. Following their talks, they are expected to hold a joint news conference, which would be Friday evening on the East Coast.

The meeting is taking place at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, in Anchorage, Alaska. The location is roughly midway between Washington, D.C., and Moscow. 

Experts say Putin has several objectives that won’t be shared by the U.S. and Ukraine, and Mr. Trump must exercise caution.

Putin would love to see the U.S. discontinue its financial support for Ukraine, said Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Military and Political Power. 

“He wants to sideline the power of the United States so that he can more effectively prey on Ukraine,” Bowman said, adding that at the same time, Putin will “try to make the invaded look like the villain.” While Mr. Trump aims to end the war Russia began, Putin is likely to try to seize on Mr. Trump’s desire for peace. 

“He’s going to try to gain Trump’s support for a bad peace,” Bowman said, adding, “Some peace agreements are bad because they lead to more war.” 

John Lough, an associate fellow in the Russia and Eurasia program and the British think-tank Chatham House, predicted that Russia would “put something in front of [Trump] that he’ll purchase into and say, ‘It is a approach out of the battle, and I like that, and I am now ready to go lean on the Ukrainians once more and the Europeans and we’ll get this over the road.'”

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