Why is Trump meeting Putin in Alaska?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 747 Ratings
🗓️ 15 August 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What does the Alaska summit hold for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin? The two presidents will meet Friday, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not invited. As Russia is gaining ground in Ukraine, what could a deal look like, and who will pay the price?
In this episode:
- Osama Bin Javaid (@osamabinjavaid), Al Jazeera Correspondent
This episode was produced by Diana Ferrero, Amy Walters, Sonia Bhagat, and Noor Wazwaz, with Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Melanie Marich, Chloe K Li, Julia Muldavin, Kisaa Zehra, Farhan Rafid, and our host, Malika Bilal. It was edited by Sarí el-Khalili.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, Trump and Putin's face-to-face summit in Alaska. |
| 0:16.9 | President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are set to meet in Alaska for talks on the war in Ukraine. |
| 0:23.3 | But concern is increasing in Kiev and among its European allies with the fears of being sidelined. |
| 0:30.5 | What's the point if President Zelensky of Ukraine is not invited to the table? |
| 0:37.8 | I'm Malika Bilal and this is the take. |
| 0:46.8 | My guest today has the view from Moscow. |
| 0:50.0 | I spoke to him on Thursday, a day ahead of the summit. |
| 0:53.1 | I'm Salma Benjave. I'm a senior correspondent for Al-Zer-English, and I usually cover |
| 0:58.4 | conflict zones, but because we're in Russia, which has 11 time zones, so I'm talking to you |
| 1:03.5 | from Moscow. |
| 1:05.0 | 11 time zones. Well, I really appreciate you taking a little bit of your time to talk to us. |
| 1:12.9 | Osama, welcome to the take. |
| 1:20.6 | This meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump is a one-on-one face-to-face summit in the U.S. |
| 1:32.7 | to discuss the end of Russia's war in Ukraine. Why is this meeting so important? And why now? Well, there are a number of reasons why this is happening now. It is happening when you see the Russians expanding their control on eastern Ukraine. |
| 1:39.0 | They are consolidating their positions in multiple locations and they're taking more areas. |
| 1:44.8 | More importantly, in Dombas in the last 24 hours, where they have taken positions 10 kilometers |
| 1:50.3 | further towards a very crucial highway which links all of the Dombas strongholds that the |
| 1:57.5 | Ukrainians still control. |
| 1:59.2 | This is happening where the Ukrainians have been admitting that |
| 2:01.6 | they are facing a number of shortfalls, including personnel. That's why they see the flank faltering |
| 2:08.6 | a bit. It's happening when the US president is on a spree of solving world crises. It is happening |
... |
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