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President Donald Trump announced plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15."The highly anticipated meeting between myself, as President of the United States of America, and President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, will take place next Friday, August 15, 2025, in the Great State of Alaska. Further details to follow," Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.The president, while speaking with reporters before the announcement, said he was optimistic about reaching a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine to end the more than three-year war: “My instinct really tells me that we have a shot at it.”The president spoke briefly about the upcoming meeting during a session with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, where he announced a peace agreement between those two countries. Thursday, Trump told reporters he was willing to meet with Putin without Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy being present. Putin expressed interest in meeting with Trump, possibly in the United Arab Emirates.The president has threatened secondary sanctions, which would impose steep tariffs on countries that continue to buy Russian oil, including China and India. If the summit occurs, it would be the first U.S.-Russia meeting since 2021, when former President Joe Biden met Putin in Switzerland.The peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan is seen as a major setback for Russia's influence in the region, where fighting between Christians and Muslims over land claims has persisted for decades. Separate from the joint agreement, both Armenia and Azerbaijan signed deals with the United States meant to bolster cooperation in energy, technology and the economy, the White House said.At the peace summit on Friday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said the transit corridor will “create connectivity opportunities for so many countries.”“We are starting the path toward strategic partnership,” he said.Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called the agreement a “significant milestone.”