Trump-Putin talks: Who will join Russian president in Alaska? Names inside…

A Kremlin aircraft carrying top Russian officials has landed in Alaska just one day before Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump meet to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine. The high-profile talks are scheduled for Friday, August 15, at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Anchorage.

The government plane departed Moscow at 7:50 a.m. local time, entered U.S. airspace at approximately 5:15 a.m. local time, and landed at Anchorage International Airport shortly afterward. The aircraft, previously used for transporting senior officials and diplomatic envoys, carried a delegation of key Kremlin figures, including:

• Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
• Defence Minister Andrey Belousov
• Finance Minister Anton Siluanov
• Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yury Ushakov
• Presidential envoy for international investment and economic cooperation Kirill Dmitriev

High-Stakes Agenda

Putin and Trump are set to meet initially in a one-on-one session before expanding the talks to include their respective delegations. The discussions will begin at 22:30 Moscow time (7:30 GMT / 1:00 a.m. IST) and will be followed by a joint press conference. The primary focus will be finding a pathway toward resolving the Ukraine conflict and laying groundwork for future peace efforts.

The meeting marks a significant diplomatic moment, coming amid ongoing hostilities and a stalled peace process. On Thursday, Putin chaired a meeting in Moscow to review the status of negotiations on Ukraine, praising Trump for what he described as “energetic and sincere efforts” to halt the fighting and reach mutually beneficial agreements.

“The current American administration… is making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict,” Putin said.

Trump’s Measured Expectations

While acknowledging the importance of the talks, Trump offered a cautious outlook, estimating a 25% chance of failure. He also noted that any concrete deal to end Russia’s invasion would require a second, trilateral meeting involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“This meeting sets up the second meeting, but there is a 25 percent chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting,” Trump told a U.S. network.

If Friday’s session produces common ground, the follow-up meeting with Zelensky could be pivotal in determining whether the diplomatic momentum can translate into an actual peace agreement.