The United States advanced the possibility of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in mid-August 2025 by holding separate meetings with the nations’ leaders. Analysts were cautiously optimistic that the discussions would lead to a trilateral summit to end the more than three-year conflict.
U.S. President Donald Trump met for three hours with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15 to help broker a deal. Two days later, he met in Washington, D.C., with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
At a joint news conference after the Alaska meeting, President Trump said “some headway” had been made toward a peace deal. Putin acknowledged the constructive discussion: “I agree with President Trump … that naturally, the security of Ukraine should be ensured as well.”
U.S. officials later said Putin, for the first time, agreed in principle to allow U.S. and European allies to offer “Article-5 like” security guarantees to Ukraine, similar to NATO’s collective defense clause, The Associated Press reported.
“We agreed to robust security guarantees that I would describe as game-changing,” U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN.
U.S. Allies and Partners welcomed the summit and supported advancing a peace deal. “Our position is consistent,” Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for India’s External Affairs Ministry, told the India-based Economic Times newspaper. “We maintain that dialogue and diplomacy [are] the way forward.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. is uniquely positioned to facilitate peace talks, highlighting Washington’s efforts to end conflicts around the globe. For example, U.S. officials helped broker Malaysia-hosted dialogue between Cambodia and Thailand following recent border clashes and “is prepared to facilitate future discussions in order to ensure peace and stability.”
“We’ve seen it in Cambodia and Thailand. We’ve seen it in India-Pakistan. We’ve seen it in Rwanda and the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo]. And we’re going to continue to pursue any opportunities we can to bring about peace in the world. … We want this conflict to end as soon as possible,” Rubio told Fox News after the Alaska summit.
Ukrainian and European leaders were waiting to see whether Putin’s tentative agreement to a security guarantee can translate into enforceable protections, given Ukraine’s consistent rejection of territorial concessions, the U.K.-based newspaper The Guardian reported. “Since the territorial issue is so important, it should be discussed only by the leaders of Ukraine and Russia at the trilateral — Ukraine, the U.S. and Russia,” Zelenskyy stated ahead of the White House talks.
Ahead of the Washington talks, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba welcomed President Trump’s efforts end the conflict sparked by Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, according to The Japan Times newspaper.
“I believe that President Trump’s proactive efforts will contribute to progress in the meeting, and I consider it a positive that European leaders will gather with Ukraine for these talks,” he said. “However, I strongly hope that frank discussions will take place and that a path toward achieving a fair and lasting peace for Ukraine will be established.”
