Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent

Now we have a time and a place for the much-anticipated summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

While locations like Rome and Hungary had been rumoured, the actual destination – Alaska one week from today – isn’t quite as exotic.

It is, however, US territory, which simplifies security concerns considerably. It also positions Trump as the host to his Russian counterpart on land that the US purchased from Russia more than a century and a half ago.

The last time Alaska took centre stage in an American diplomatic event was in March 2021, when Joe Biden’s newly minted diplomatic and national security team met their Chinese counterparts in Anchorage.

The sit-down turned acrimonious, with the Chinese accusing the Americans of “condescension and hypocrisy”.

Trump, who promised last year that he would quickly end the Ukraine war if he returned to the White House, must be hoping this Alaska sit-down provides better results.

Confirmation that Trump and Putin will sit down together in Alaska next week comes after steadily building talks between the two since the US president returned to office. Here’s how we got to the brink of this potentially seismic meeting.

12 February – The first official call with Putin of Trump’s second term takes place. Trump describes it as “a lengthy and highly productive phone call” in which both sides agree to have delegations meet in Saudi Arabia. Witkoff then makes first visit to Moscow.

18 February – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hold face-to-face talks in Saudi Arabia.

18 March – Another direct phone call between Trump and Putin takes place. A White House read out of the call says the two leaders agreed to a peace framework beginning with a ceasefire on energy and key infrastructure.

11 April – Witkoff meets Putin in Moscow for more negotiations.

15 May – US diplomats, along with Ukrainian officials, meet Russian government representatives for peace talks in Turkey.

6 August – Witkoff travels to Moscow for a fifth time, as a Trump-imposed deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire nears. Trump imposes 25% additional sanctions on India for buying Russian oil.

8 August – The ceasefire deadline passes but Trump confirms he will meet Putin in the US state of Alaska next week.

Donald Trump has just confirmed his face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin will take place in the US state of Alaska next Friday.

He wrote on social media: “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!”

Vladimir Putin set out his demands for a ceasefire deal when he met Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow earlier this week, according to a report.

The Wall Street Journal, external, citing officials briefed on the talks, is reporting the Russian president wants Ukrainian forces to pull out of Donetsk and Luhansk altogether, two regions of eastern Ukraine which Russia already controls the majority of.

But the paper said Europeans were pushing for clarity over what that would mean for the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, where Russian forces also control some territory.

It reported that European officials briefed by the US this week “came away with conflicting impressions about whether Putin intended to freeze the current front lines or eventually pull out of those regions entirely”.

BBC News has not confirmed the Wall Street Journal report.

Ukraine has previously said any territorial concessions agreed to without its officials being at the negotiating table would be unacceptable.

Donald Trump made his remarks about Russia and Ukraine while sitting alongside the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, who had just signed a US-brokered peace deal at the White House.

Azerbaijan’s President lham Aliyev called it a historic day, while the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the peace treaty paved the way for a new era.

There have been tensions between the Caucasus nations for decades, which have at time descended into armed clashes.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Trump said both sides had committed to stop all fighting forever.

Both Aliyev and Pashinyan then said they would back Trump’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.

We can bring you more of Donald Trump’s comments from the White House a short while ago, where the US president was asked about progress on talks to end the Ukraine war. He said:

• A deal between Ukraine and Russia on ending the fighting is “very close”
• He will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin “very shortly”, with details of the location due to be revealed today
• The meeting is not a last “last chance” for Putin
• Ukrainian leader Zelensky has to “get ready to sign something” to ensure the conflict ends
• A deal could involve the “swapping of territories”, which he said would be for the “betterment of both” countries

Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent

Back in May, Donald Trump said that the only way there would be a negotiated peace between Russian and Ukraine is if he sat down and had a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Now it appears he is going to have that opportunity.

The past three months have been an exercise in frustration for the American president, who has alternated between anger and hope over how serious Russia is about reaching a ceasefire and, ultimately, an enduring peace.

Trump’s decision to take the plunge and meet Putin raises the possibility of a breakthrough, but it also comes with significant diplomatic and political risks for his presidency.

While he frequently likes to claim that this war belongs to his predecessor, Joe Biden, and not him, a commitment to direct talks with Putin will change that equation.

As soon as Trump sits down across the table from Putin, this will be his war, too. And he will shoulder some of the credit – or the blame – over how and when it ends.

Speaking to reporters during a summit with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House a little earlier, Donald Trump said he would confirm the location of a planned meeting with Vladimir Putin “very soon” to discuss the war in Ukraine.

He told reporters: “I’ll be meeting very shortly with President Putin. It would have been sooner, but I guess there’s security arrangements that unfortunately people have to make.”

He said the location of the meeting “will be a very popular one for a number of reasons”.

The US president also alluded to a deal which would involve “some swapping of territories… to the betterment of both” Ukraine and Russia.

He continued: “You are looking at territory that has been fought over for three-and-a-half years. A lot of Russians have died, a lot of Ukrainians have died, so we are looking at that.

“We are looking to actually get some back and some swapping. It is complicated, actually nothing easy. We are going to get some back, some switched.”

Donald Trump has just confirmed he will meet Vladimir Putin “very shortly”, and said that more details about the talks, including the location, will be released later.

He made the comments after a US-imposed deadline for the Russian president to agree to a ceasefire deal in Ukraine came and went without an announcement on Friday.

Trump told a press conference moments ago that a meeting with Putin would go ahead anyway. We’ll bring you more details about where and when it will take place as soon as we hear more.

It follows a flurry of diplomatic activity around the Ukraine war in recent days. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, met Putin earlier this week, and the US president has spoken to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over the phone.

The White House is pushing hard for a deal to bring the conflict to an end – but it remains to be seen whether there are terms both sides can agree to.

Stick with us while we bring you the latest.