𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

A pause in the conflict in Ukraine could be close, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Friday after speaking to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“There are certain signals, and we also have an intuition, that perhaps a freeze in the conflict – I don’t want to say the end, but a freeze in the conflict – is closer than it is further away,” he said. “There are hopes for this.”

The last meeting between the two presidents took place in Helsinki, Finland, in July 2018, during Trump’s first term as president.

Following the meeting, Trump publicly contradicted US intelligence agencies and appeared to take Putin’s word over their findings regarding Russian election interference.

The remarks caused bipartisan outrage in Washington, with many accusing Trump of having “sided with the enemy.”

At the time, Finland was known for its military neutrality, however, it has since joined Nato and taken a firm stance against Moscow. This means it is almost certainly ruled out as the grounds for their meeting next week.

Vladimir Putin is restricted from travelling to countries held to the Rome Statute due to the arrest warrant in his name from the International Criminal Courts, which holds signing countries accountable to detain those in demand.

While the United States is not a signee of the statute, Alaska was perhaps an unexpected rendezvous choice when more obvious options such as Qatar and Switzerland were available.

Putin had originally said that he would have been happy with the United Arab Emirates as a meeting point.

But Alaska holds a special significance to both the US and Russia, after the state was sold by the Russian Empire to the United States in 1867.

Alaska was purchased by the United States for a sum of $7.2 million – the equivalent to between $129 million and $153.5 million today.

US president Donald Trump has said he will meet Russian president Vladimir Putin next Friday in Alaska.

Posting on Truth Social, the US leader said: “The highly anticipated meeting between myself, as President of the United States of America, and President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, will take place next Friday, August 15, 2025, in the Great State of Alaska.

“Further details to follow. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Russian president has reportedly told US envoy Steve Witkoff that he would agree to a complete ceasefire if Kyiv agreed to withdraw forces from all of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, according to The Wall Street Journal.

US president Donald Trump said he will meet “very shortly” with Russian president Vladimir Putin to discuss the war in Ukraine and that he will announce the location soon.

“We’re going to be announcing later, and we’re going to have a meeting with Russia,” Mr Trump told reporters at the White House.

US president Donald Trump has announced that he will soon meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin, with the location to be revealed shortly.

“I’ll be meeting very shortly with President Putin. It would have been sooner, but I guess there are security arrangements that unfortunately people have to make,” Mr Trump told reporters on Friday.