U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in Alaska next Friday, August 15, to discuss the future of the war in Ukraine.

Trump announced the meeting on social media, with the Kremlin later confirming the location, calling it “quite logical” given Alaska’s proximity to Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed any peace effort but stressed that “any solutions must include Ukraine.” In a statement on Telegram, he said: “The answer to the Ukrainian territorial issue is already in the Constitution of Ukraine. No one will and cannot deviate from this. Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.”

The talks come just hours after Trump suggested that Ukraine might have to cede territory to end the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. “You’re looking at territory that’s been fought over for three and a half years,” Trump told reporters. “There will be some swapping of territories, to the betterment of both.”

CBS News reports the White House is pushing European leaders to consider a deal in which Russia would keep Crimea and the entire Donbas region, while giving up the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions it partially occupies. The Wall Street Journal reported that Putin recently proposed a similar arrangement to Trump’s envoy in Moscow.

Zelensky, however, has repeatedly rejected territorial concessions, warning that “any solutions that are against us, any solutions that are without Ukraine, are at the same time solutions against peace.”

A senior White House official told CBS the meeting’s agenda remains fluid, and Zelensky could be involved.

The war has reached a stalemate, with Russia holding about 20% of Ukraine’s territory. Past peace talks in Istanbul failed, with Moscow demanding Ukraine’s neutrality, a smaller military, abandonment of NATO ambitions, and the lifting of Western sanctions.

Trump insisted there is “a shot at” a trilateral peace deal, saying, “European leaders want to see peace, President Putin, I believe, wants to see peace, and Zelensky wants to see peace.”

This will be the first in-person meeting between Trump and Putin since Russia’s invasion.