President Donald Trump is considering opening up some of Alaska’s natural resources to Russia and offering part of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals to Vladimir Putin in exchange for ending the war.
But Trump also admitted there’s a 25 percent chance that Friday’s Russia summit could be a flop and he has not ruled out adopting wide-ranging sanctions to get a peace deal.
“It’s like a chess game,” he told Fox host Brian Kilmeade on Thursday.
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“This meeting sets up the second meeting - but there is a 25 percent chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting.”
The comments are the first time that Trump, who came to office promising to end the Ukraine war on “day one” of his presidency, has put a figure on his chances of failure.
But the administration is already facing a backlash over the summit amid reports that Trump is considering giving Putin access to Alaska’s natural resources—something that could bolster Russia’s strategic interests in the region—as well as offering Ukraine’s rare earth minerals in territories occupied by Russia.
“So hang on... Trump is going to offer to open up [sic] ALASKA TO THE RUSSIANS??” Trump critic and former GOP Congressman Adam Kinzinger wrote on X.
“Wow. Let’s see Republicans defend this.”
Russia sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, and many Russian nationalists have resented it ever since.
Putin has also lamented the loss of the region in recent years, signing a decree in 2024 declaring the sale to the U.S. “illegal.”
News that Trump was preparing to offer the state’s natural resources to Moscow was first reported in The Telegraph.
Asked about the plan, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told The Daily Beast: “Anonymous sources claiming to know what President Trump is ‘considering’ don’t know anything.
“Only the President has direct experience with looking foreign leaders in the eye to try to resolve conflicts around the world, and only he knows how best to move forward towards peace.”
However, asked about it in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters: “We’ll see what happens.”
Speaking on Kilmeade’s radio show on Thursday morning, Trump also acknowledged he was considering a range of “incentives and disincentives” to secure a deal to end the war in Ukraine, but added: “I don’t want to play my hand in public.”
Asked if he would consider adopting the sanctions package pushed by senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal - which, among other things, suggests 500 percent tariffs on countries buying Russian oil, gas, and uranium - Trump replied: “Oh sure, if it’s not solved.”
Trump’s historic meeting with Putin will take place on Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on the northern edge of Anchorage, Alaska.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose country has been fighting for survival ever since Russia’s brutal invasion in February 2022, has not been invited.
Ahead of the meeting on Thursday, Putin convened top officials at the Kremlin, where he said he believed the US was making “quite energetic efforts to stop the fighting, end the crisis, and reach agreements of interest to all parties involved in this conflict.”
But some analysts believe that the Russian president—who has frustrated Trump in recent months— has the upper hand, using the meeting to bring Trump closer to his demands.
Among the things Russia wants to discuss, in addition to controlling Ukraine itself, are economic links and nuclear arms.
“I think Putin knows he pushed Trump sort of beyond the envelope, and he‘s going to try and roll him back in, using all of his best KGB training,” Bolton told CNN on Tuesday night’s The Source.
