“Ukraine and Alaska — Russian never again,” Ostap Yarysh, media advisor of Razom for Ukraine foundation, said in a post on X, along with footage of the protest.
The local organizers of the rally said “Alaska opposes tyranny” in a post on social media, calling on supporters to “come together in Anchorage, Alaska, to protest against an international war criminal hanging out here.”
“The decision to host Putin, a war criminal, on Alaskan soil is a betrayal of our history and the moral clarity demanded by the suffering of Ukraine and other occupied peoples,” the Native Movement NGO said in a statement, calling for Trump not to make a deal with Putin.
Trump said he planned to organize a trilateral meeting with the Ukrainian president and Putin soon after the Alaska meeting. The U.S. president said there were “three ideas” for locations — and “by far the easiest” would be staying in Alaska.
Ukraine and its European allies have expressed some cautious optimism about the summit, after Trump hardened his criticism of Putin over his role in prolonging the war and floated the idea of U.S. security guarantees to facilitate a ceasefire, something he had previously rejected. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday confirmed that stance, saying in a press conference Thursday: “To achieve a peace, I think we all recognize that there’ll have to be some conversation about security guarantees.”
Though Trump initially floated the idea of Ukraine “swapping land for peace,” he later promised Ukrainian and European leaders that he would not discuss the issue with Putin and without Zelenskyy.