‘War Criminal’: Hundreds of Alaskans Protest as Putin Arrives for Trump Meeting
Hundreds of Alaskans gathered Friday morning to protest Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of his arrival in Anchorage for a meeting with President Donald Trump to discuss a potential peace deal that would end the Ukraine-Russia war.
The meeting will be the first face-to-face between a U.S. president and the Russian leader since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Crowds gathered on Friday morning raising pro-Ukraine chants and waving Ukrainian flags. One giant flag was inscribed with “Alaska Stands with Ukraine.” Protestors reportedly also held signs demanding the return of 20,000 children Ukraine said Russia has abducted during the war. Cars honked their horns in support as they passed.
“Ukraine and Alaska — Russian never again,” posted Ostap Yarysh of the Razom for Ukraine foundation, alongside footage of the scene, which was shared widely online.
One protestor held a sign nodding to South Park’s latest episode which saw Trump in bed with Satan, the demonstrator made it a throuple – adding Putin:
The display was not just in opposition to Putin but also the symbolism of Trump’s decision to host the Russian leader in Alaska, which one NGO called “a betrayal of our history.”
“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,” said the Native Movement NGO, condemning any deal that would “cede territory, reward aggression, or silence the voices” of those under occupation.
The rally was the second major demonstration in Anchorage in just 24 hours. Late Thursday, Stand UP Alaska organized a further protest that was attended by an estimated 1,000 people.
“Alaska opposes tyranny,” the group wrote on Facebook, calling Putin “an international war criminal” who’d be “hanging out here.”
Trump has billed the meeting as a session to lay groundwork for a ceasefire, warning Putin of “very severe consequences” if he refuses to end the war. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who will not attend the talks, has dismissed the Kremlin leader’s overtures as a bluff aimed at pressuring Ukraine “on all sectors of the front.”
While Trump once floated a land swap, which Kyiv rejects outright, he has assured European leaders he would not raise the idea without Zelenskyy present. The president says he hopes to arrange a trilateral summit “almost immediately” if talks go well.
Watch above via X.
