U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday (August 21, 2025) set a two-week time frame for assessing peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, as he ramps up his efforts to negotiate an end to the war.

“I would say within two weeks we’re going to know one way or the other,” he said in a telephone interview when asked about the chances of a peace agreement.

“After that, we’ll have to maybe take a different tack,” Mr. Trump told Todd Starnes, a host for media outlet Newsmax, without giving further details.

Opinion | Alaskan winds, India and the Trump-Putin summit 

The Republican, who had promised during last year’s presidential election to end the war in one day, has so far failed to achieve any major breakthroughs — more than three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

He met Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday (August 15, 2025) at a highly anticipated summit in Alaska that failed to reach an accord and saw Mr. Trump drop his push for an initial ceasefire.

On Monday (August 18, 2025), the U.S. President held talks at the White House with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a handful of European allies.

Those meetings raised hopes that Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelenskyy could meet directly for a peace summit, as both leaders initially appeared open to that option.

But Mr. Zelenskyy on Thursday (August 21, 2025) accused Russia of “trying to avoid the necessity to meet” and said that it did not want to end the war.

Russia, meanwhile, said that Ukraine did not seem to be interested in “long-term” peace, accusing Kyiv of seeking security guarantees completely incompatible with Moscow’s demands.

Mr. Trump has a track record of issuing two-week deadlines to deliberate on Ukraine and other issues.

In late May, he said he would assess within that period whether Mr. Putin was serious about achieving a peace deal, promising to respond “differently” if not.

On August 15, U.S President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin concluded a historic summit in Alaska. After friendly greetings and two-and-a-half-hour-long talks at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, they left without announcing any deal, but claimed to have made progress on many issues.

The selection of Alaska as the backdrop for this summit, the first since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, was significant in more than one manner. Alaska was under Russian control for 125 years before being sold to the U.S. in 1867. Alaska is separated from Russia by a distance of 88 km, while the Russian Island of Big Diomede is located just 4 km from the U.S. Little Diomede Island, with the Bering strait separating the two.

Also read: Trump-Putin Alaska Summit Highlights

Alaska has been populated by Indigenous peoples, including the Athabaskans, Unangan (Aleuts), Inuit, Yupiit (Yupik), Tlingit, and Haida, for centuries. In the early 18th century, Danish explorer Vitus Bering was pressed into service by Russian Tsar Peter the Great to explore the regions to the east of Russia’s border. In 1728, Bering sailed through the strait separating the Russian mainland and North America (the strait is now named after him). During his second voyage in 1741, Bering spotted the peak of Mount St. Elias, part of an Alaskan mountain range, from his ship St. Peter. His “discovery” of Alaska was confirmed later during the voyage of Englishman Captain James Cook, who mapped the area in 1778.

Trading outposts

Russian traders — the Promyshlenniki — soon set up outposts in Alaska, interested in seal-hunting and otter fur trade. The first Russian colony was set up in 1784 on Kodiak island at Three Saints Bay. In 1799, Tsar Paul I established the Russian American company, and in 1806, their capital was moved from Kodiak to Sitka.

The Russians had to contend with opposition from the Alaskan natives, including an armed battle in Sitka in 1804 between Tlingit and Russian forces. British and later American trade interest in the region was also a challenge to the growth of ‘Russian America’. Over decades, overexploitation of seals and sea otters in Alaska meant that their populations shrank, gutting profitability for Russian traders. Further, Russia was defeated by the British in the Crimean war (1853-1856). Viewing Alaska as a hard-to-defend territory which was also becoming economically untenable, Tsar Alexander II decided to give it up.

Despite British interest, the U.S. emerged triumphant in its bid for Alaska in 1867. Russia sold the parcel of land, measured 665,000 sq. miles, to the U.S for $7.2 million, in a deal brokered by U.S. Secretary of State William Henry Seward. The deal, dubbed as ‘Seward’s Folly’, was widely criticised, since Alaska was viewed as a barren frozen wasteland. The subsequent discovery of natural gas reserves and rare earth minerals, however, changed the public perception. In 1896, gold was found in Yukon and prospectors arrived to seek their fortunes in the Klondike gold fields. In 1959, Alaska officially became the 49th State of the U.S.

Traces of its Russian past persist in Alaska till day. Several Orthodox churches, with characteristic ornate decor and onion-shaped domes, dot the region. The Orthodox diocese in Alaska is reportedly the oldest in North America, and it maintains a seminary on Kodiak island, the site of the first Russian settlement. Local dialects, now fast-vanishing, arose from a melange of Russian and local indigenous language, and persisted in regions surrounding Anchorage. Russian, too, is taught in some areas, such as the Kenai peninsula.

Alaska is also a strategically important region. Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, the site of Friday’s summit, was a forward front of American defence during the Cold War.

Given the region’s imperial Russian past, it was hardly a surprise that Anchorage was picked as the venue for the Putin-Trump meet — an American town acceptable for the Russians. When Mr. Putin met Mr. Trump on the tarmac of the joint base, he greeted him, saying, ‘Good afternoon, dear neighbour.”

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday (August 14, 2025) he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a deal about his war on Ukraine, and that the threat of sanctions against Russia likely played a role in Moscow’s decision to seek a meeting. Mr. Trump is scheduled to meet with Mr. Putin in Alaska on Friday (August 15, 2025). The U.S. President said he is unsure whether an immediate ceasefire can be achieved, but expressed interest in brokering a peace agreement.

“I believe now, he’s convinced that he’s going to make a deal. He’s going to make a deal. I think he’s going to, and we’re going to find out,” Mr. Trump said in an interview on Fox News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show.”

Putin praises U.S. for ‘sincere efforts’

Earlier in the day, Mr. Putin said the United States was making “sincere efforts” to end the war in Ukraine and suggested Moscow and Washington could agree on a nuclear arms deal as part of a broader push to strengthen peace.

Mr. Trump also mentioned during the Fox interview that he has three locations in mind for a follow-up meeting with Mr. Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, though he noted that a second meeting is not guaranteed.

He said staying in Alaska for a three-way summit would be the easiest scenario.

“Depending on what happens with my meeting, I’m going to be calling up President Zelenskyy, and let’s get him over to wherever we’re going to meet,” Mr. Trump said.

He said a second meeting, featuring Mr. Trump, Mr. Putin, and Mr. Zelenskyy, would likely dig deeper into boundary issues. Mr. Zelenskyy has been adamant about not ceding territory that Russian forces occupy.

“The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that’s going to be a meeting where they make a deal. And I don’t want to use the word ‘divvy things up,’ but you know, to a certain extent, it’s not a bad term, OK?” he said.

“But there will be a give and take as to boundaries, lands, etc, etc. The second meeting is going to be very, very very important. This meeting sets up like a chess game. This (first) meeting sets up a second meeting, but there is a 25% chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting,” he said.

He said it would be up to Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelenskyy to strike an agreement.

“I’m not going to negotiate their deal. I’m going to let them negotiate their deal,” he said.