WARSAW: The US and Russian presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are to meet at a US air base in Alaska on Friday (Aug 15) for talks on the Ukraine war.
Expectations are high for the first summit between sitting US and Russian presidents in more than four years, but Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart in their visions on how to end the conflict.
It will be Putin’s first trip to a Western country since launching his invasion in February 2022, as well as his first US visit in 10 years.
Here is a look at what each side hopes to achieve from the talks:
RUSSIA
For Putin, who has faced years of isolation from the West since the invasion, the summit is an opportunity to press Russia’s hardline demands for ending the conflict.
In a draft peace plan published in June, Russia called on Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the Kherson, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions that Moscow claimed to annex in 2022. Ukraine has rejected the idea.
Russia has also called on Ukraine to halt its military mobilisation, abandon its NATO ambitions, and for Western countries to immediately stop weapon supplies – something critics say amounts to capitulation.
In addition to territory, Russia wants Ukraine to ensure the “rights and freedoms” of the Russian-speaking population and to prohibit what it calls the “glorification of Nazism”.
It also wants Western sanctions lifted.
Ukraine says Russia’s allegations of Nazism are absurd and that it already guarantees rights to Russian speakers.
UKRAINE
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not scheduled to take part in the summit, but has said there can be no peace deal without its involvement. He has called the meeting a “personal victory” for Putin.
Ukraine has called for an unconditional ceasefire on land, sea and sky as a prerequisite to peace talks.
It wants both sides to release all prisoners of war and demanded the return of Ukrainian children it says Russia illegally kidnapped.
Ukraine says Russia has forcibly transferred thousands of Ukrainian children into areas under its control since the war began, often adopting them into Russian families and assigning them Russian citizenship.
Russia rejects the kidnapping allegations but acknowledges that thousands of children are on its territory.
Ukraine says any deal must include security guarantees to prevent Russia from attacking again, and that there should be no restrictions on the number of troops it can deploy on its territory.
It says sanctions on Russia can only be lifted gradually and that there should be a way of reimposing them if needed.
