AILSA CHANG, HOST:
President Trump will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin next Friday in Alaska to talk about the war in Ukraine. It is the first time the two leaders will meet face to face since 2019. And other than the United Nations, it'll be the first time a Russian president will be on U.S. soil since 2011. That's when then-President Dmitry Medvedev met with President Obama. Trump announced the news on social media tonight. NPR White House correspondent, Danielle Kurtzleben is here to tell us all about it. Hi, Danielle.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey there.
CHANG: OK, so tell us more about what we know about what's coming.
KURTZLEBEN: Well, tonight on social media, Trump posted that this highly anticipated meeting will come next Friday, and he's right. It's highly anticipated. That might be an understatement. I mean, Trump pledged during his campaign last year that he would find a quick end to the war in Ukraine. He said at times that he could end this war in one day. He bragged about his relationship with Putin. But then ending the war has been much harder than he expected. At this point, it's been four years since Russia invaded. And today, Trump told reporters that he thinks that Putin is now eager to talk.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: But I'll be meeting very shortly with President Putin. It would have been sooner, but I guess there's security arrangements that, unfortunately, people have to make. Otherwise, I'd do it much quicker. He would, too. He'd like to meet as soon as possible. I agree with it. But we'll be announcing that very shortly.
KURTZLEBEN: And then it was a couple of hours later that he made the announcement online of when and where this will happen.
CHANG: Wait, wait. What about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy? Like, will he be there at the meeting in Alaska, as well?
KURTZLEBEN: He will not, and this meeting will be very different than what Trump had initially seemed to hope for. Earlier this week, he suggested that he and Putin and Zelenskyy would meet together. Well, that, of course, isn't happening here. And there's been more back and forth. Trump this week told reporters that Putin would not have to meet with Zelenskyy as a precondition of meeting with Trump. Now, that comment contradicted other recent reports that said Trump thought it should be a precondition.
And really, Trump's attitude towards Putin has shifted over time a lot during his first term and in the years after, he talked about Putin as a genius, as savvy. And now In recent months, Trump has been increasingly willing to criticize Putin as he bombarded Ukraine. Now, lately, Trump has been saying a lot that he thinks Putin wants peace, so now we might just see how much he wants it.
CHANG: Right. OK, he's going to try to get a deal, but do we have any indications of what kind of deal that they're talking about at this point?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, there has been some reporting that Russia is insisting on major concessions of territory from Ukraine in exchange for a ceasefire. Now, NPR has not independently confirmed those reports. But today, Trump said it's possible there would be an exchange of territory.
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TRUMP: It's very complicated, but we're going to get some back. We're going to get some switched. There'll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both, and - but we'll be talking about that either later or tomorrow or whatever.
KURTZLEBEN: But the details are what matter here. And Ukraine and its European allies - they've just been really resistant to any suggestion of giving up sovereign territory to Russia.
CHANG: That is NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thank you so much, Danielle.
KURTZLEBEN: Of course. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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