Trump and Putin Meet in Alaska as Russia Continues to Attack Ukraine

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Can the U.S. help bring an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine? President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Anchorage, Alaska on Friday to discuss a ceasefire in Ukraine. Trump has floated ideas including so-called “land swaps” and potential U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine, but with Ukraine excluded from the talks and Russia continuing to escalate its attacks, movement toward peace remains uncertain. We get analysis from former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul and other experts. Guests: Michael McFaul, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University; former U.S ambassador to Russia Tamara Keith, NPR White House correspondent; co-host of the NPR Politics podcast Edward Fishman, senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy; adjunct professor of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:05.3	Coming up on forum, what we're learning about what happened at Friday's summit in Alaska between President Trump
1:11.3	and Russian President Putin, over the weekend Trump said on his social platform that he backs
1:16.4	brokering a peace agreement without a ceasefire, as well as Ukraine should give up on joining
1:21.5	NATO or getting back Crimea.
1:23.7	Meantime, Trump official Steve Whitkoff said Russia has agreed to robust security guarantees for Ukraine.
1:29.4	We talked to former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFal, and others, about leverage the U.S. could bring to bear and whether the Trump administration is up to the task.
1:38.5	Join us. Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim.
1:52.3	Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders are in Washington as we speak for a meeting at the White House following President Trump's Friday summit in Alaska
2:01.5	with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Those talks have fueled concerns in Europe that Trump is
2:06.7	supporting Russia's position and will ask Ukraine to cede unconquered territory in a peace deal.
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