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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Trump & Putin To Meet In Alaska; Ukrainians Fear "Unjust" Peace; Trump Defends Crime Crackdown. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired August 15, 2025 - 05:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[05:00:29]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to all our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Polo Sandoval, in for Rahel Solomon. It is Friday, August 15th, 5:00 a.m. here in New York, 1:00 a.m. in Anchorage, Alaska.

And this is what's coming your way on EARLY START.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: We are just a few hours away now from a crucial summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think President Putin will make peace.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The worry is that Trump is going to go back putting a priority on his friendship with President Putin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We here in Ukraine wanted the war to end as soon as possible.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Open tension on the street between D.C. residents and local and federal officers.

TRUMP: We will have crime under control very shortly in D.C.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

SANDOVAL: And it is already shaping up to be a very busy Friday, as we are just hours away from a rare and high stakes summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

President Trump says that he hopes that the meeting will help bring an end to that years-long war in Ukraine, following Russia's full scale invasion more than three years ago. We expect to hear from both leaders during a news conference later today. At least that's the plan, though President Trump says that he could do it by himself if the meeting, as he put it, doesn't end well. Mr. Trump, keeping expectations high, saying that he believes

President Putin wants to make a deal to end this war after White House officials earlier this week seemed to downplay this one-on-one meeting, calling it a listening exercise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think President Putin will make peace. I think President Zelenskyy will make peace. We'll see if they can get along and if they can, it'll be great. You know, I've solved six wars in the last six months, a little more than six months now. And I'm very proud of it. I thought the easiest one would be this one. It's actually the most difficult.

President Putin would like to see a deal. I think if I were president, he would take over all of Ukraine. But I am president and he's not going to mess around with me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Keep in mind that anything could happen.

Here's what we know about today's meeting. The presidents, they're going to be meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. Russia's foreign minister and its ambassador to the U.S. have already arrived for the meeting. And that's according to Russian state media.

President Trump says that the summit is an effort to set the table for a second meeting, which would potentially include Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He is not scheduled to attend today's summit. That first meeting, he has been meeting with European leaders as they emphasize that no decision about Ukraine should be made without them at the table.

Meanwhile, people in Ukraine, they are reacting to today's meeting between President Trump and Putin. Without Ukraine, with a seat at their table. Some of them even gathering outside the U.S. embassy in Kyiv right now.

In fact, our Ben Wedeman, he is live there in the Ukrainian capital. We're going to go to him in just a few moments.

But first, I want to go now to Sebastian Shukla in berlin as we try to learn more about what's going to happen today. Obviously, this -- the place where this meeting, that sends a clear message, Sebastian. What else are we hearing, though, from Russian officials about today's summit?

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: Yeah, the location of Alaska is very important and very significant in the diplomatic messaging here. But the big thing to take away from today will be the optics, is that this will be the reintroduction to Russia on the international stage. It's been happening in fits and starts ever since President Trump took office again for his second stint in the White House. But this will be the full reintroduction of Vladimir Putin talking about high level international diplomatic issues alongside the most powerful and most powerful country in the planet in Alaska.

Now, the symbolism of Alaska is important for the Russians, too. It used to be a former imperial colony of Russia at its at its furthest point between Alaska mainland and the Russian peninsula. There is just some 80 kilometers. So that gives you an idea about just how close and the Russians are playing up this idea that Alaska was formerly our colony.

[05:05:03]

And when they're going into this summit, looking at the possible discussion about land swaps, they have been saying, particularly in social, media, that, look, land swaps do happen and they are able to be arranged for President Putin, though what he said very little so far. But what he has said has been has been positive short of glowing, but has been saying that look, he feels that the U.S. are really going into this summit with an open, open eyes and that they're coming into this with a good, a good intentions possible for the Russians, though what they will also be looking at here is that the Ukrainians and the Europeans are not here. They're not here to drive a wedge between the Russians and Washington with regards to their demands and their redlines.

And what we've seen over recent years. In fact, in that first ever time that the presidents met in Helsinki in 2016, is that the Russians feel with Donald Trump, they have somebody who will listen to them and that they can talk to, dare I say it? They view that he may even be malleable to the Russian way of thinking.

And going into this, there has been a trail from the Kremlin that they've been saying, look, we want to discuss land swaps. The Europeans have said, absolutely not. And they held a meeting here in Berlin this week to say just that, to make the point to Donald Trump saying, you cannot go into this summit or come out of it with any agreement about land swaps before we agree a ceasefire.

So, look, Polo, we'll wait to see exactly the way that this shakes out today. What we know is that the Russian delegation, Sergey Lavrov, the erstwhile foreign minister of Russia, has arrived there a long time alongside the rest of the delegation. President Putin himself, Dmitry Peskov, told state media, is out in Russia's far east, in the city of Magadan. He will travel to Alaska later today.

It's a four-hour flight or so, but I want you to take a listen just very quickly to what Sergey Lavrov said when he arrived in Alaska yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: We never make any plans in advance. We know that we have arguments, a clear, understandable position. We will present it. Much has already been done during the visits of the U.S. president, special envoy Witkoff. This is what the Russian president talked about.

Witkoff spoke on behalf of President Trump. I hope that tomorrow we will continue this useful conversation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHUKLA: So continuing that useful conversation, those details about that conversation hopefully will become clear after this tete a tete between the two.

Then this roundtable between the two heads and their advisors, and then subsequently at this press conference. Polo, the thing that we do know and what we can say is that the eyes of the international world will focus on Anchorage later today. And European leaders and President Zelenskyy will be hanging on to their phones as they wait to hear from President Trump, particularly as he promised he would call them after this summit.

SANDOVAL: Sebastian, stand by for us as I bring in Ben Wedeman right now, joining us from Kyiv for those additional voices, especially those coming from Ukrainians.

Ben, as you as -- you're there in that demonstration, what are you hearing from Ukrainians? Is there clearly a frustration there that they do not have representation at the table in Alaska today?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, there's frustration and there's trepidation. This is a group of Ukrainians who have relatives in Russian prisons or have been missing since 2014. With the Russian occupation of Crimea. This group has submitted a letter to the U.S. embassy here, hoping that it gets to President Trump. In that letter, they say, rather than talking about land swaps, the Americans, when they meet with the Russians, should be talking about prisoner swaps.

There around 8,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia, in addition to almost 60,000 people unaccounted for since 2014. In that letter, they also say that peace cannot be achieved in Ukraine without the involvement of Ukraine in the negotiations. And of course, President Zelenskyy is not going to be in Alaska. So many of these people here are worried that President Trump is one woman told us, he says one thing one day, the opposite, the next. That he's completely unpredictable and more grave in terms of their concerns.

One woman brought up the 1938 Munich agreement, with which ceded the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia to Hitler, negotiated by Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister at the time, without the involvement of Czechoslovakia. So, they see direct parallels between the situation today with an American president, many of them don't have a lot of trust in, and the situation of Neville Chamberlain back in 1938, who gave away land that he didn't actually possess.

[05:10:13]

And therefore, there is profound distrust. And let's keep in mind, of course, that President Trump has had a very stormy relationship with President Zelenskyy going back several years. And the worry is that when he meets with President Putin, somebody who's very well prepared for this meeting, Trump, on the other hand, he's been described as overconfident and underprepared when he goes in to these critical summits.

So there's not a lot of confidence among the people here outside the U.S. embassy that President Trump has their interests at heart -- Polo.

SANDOVAL: Yeah. Ben, couldn't help but notice an American flag over your shoulder there. Clearly, there is some hope that they will see some support from the U.S. president during today's summit. Ben Wedeman, Sebastian Shukla, thank you both so much for all your reporting today. We'll watch along with you.

Russia's president appearing to have the upper hand on the battlefield as he heads to Alaska. So, what is his incentive to compromise? Does he have an incentive to compromise? We'll take a deeper look coming up.

Plus, Russia is reportedly pushing for more territory in Ukraine ahead of the summit. The situation on the front lines and the areas is the kremlin is really keeping an eye on.

Also, Donald Trump's push to take control of Washington, D.C.'s police department that is met with opposition not just from officials but from residents who live there. The very latest developments ahead.

You're watching EARLY START on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:16:17]

SANDOVAL: U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested that a Ukraine ceasefire deal could involve some land swapping, but Ukraine has made it clear that surrendering any territory to Russia, that that is a nonstarter.

CNN's Clare Sebastian explains which areas could possibly be on the table.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, here's what's at stake as Trump and Putin get ready to sit down in Alaska. Now, the territory you see in red, that is what Russia currently occupies. It's about 19 percent of Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War. And that includes these four regions here that Russia claimed to annex in 2022. And of course, Crimea down here, where it's had de facto control since occupying the territory in 2014.

The parts in yellow, meanwhile, is the land that Ukraine has recaptured from Russia since 2022. Now, patchy details have come out of a Russian peace offer, potentially involving Ukraine giving up the Donbas region, that is, these two regions here, Donetsk and Luhansk. But this week, Russia's foreign ministry also said that its war goals haven't changed, which involves Ukraine also ceding Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south. But here's the thing. Take a look at this map. Large parts of Donetsk,

as well as Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, are not occupied by Russia. They're still controlled by Ukraine. You can see that the regional borders run above that red section here.

And if Russia demands that Ukraine pull back from all of those regions, then in practice that would mean Ukraine withdrawing from cities that it spent three and a half years and thousands of human lives defending, abandoning some of its best defenses, including the so-called fortress belt. In this part of Donetsk, and pulling back to a less defensible line, something Zelenskyy said would simply create a springboard for future Russian aggression.

Now, it could also mean giving back territory like this down here in Kherson that Ukraine has actually taken back already from Russia militarily, in the first year of the war.

Now, this week, after over a year of trying to take the Donetsk town of Pokrovsk, if we zoom in there, Russia seems to have pushed through Ukrainian defensive lines just here, heading towards the town of Dobropillia.

Though Ukraine has stressed that this is not a major breakthrough and is now stabilized, Ukraine is still warning, though, that Russia in this area alone has about 110,000 troops stationed, a force larger than the entire British standing army.

So far from the ceasefire that Trump may push for an Alaska, it is, according to Ukraine, preparing to launch new offensives, in effort potentially to force Ukraine into big concessions.

Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: So that's the lay of the land. What about the current state of the frontlines of this battle?

We want to get more now on that from Malcolm Davis. He's a senior analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Malcolm, welcome to the program.

MALCOLM DAVIS, SENIOR ANALYST, THE AUSTRALIAN STRATEGIC POLICY INSTITUTE: Thank you for having me.

SANDOVAL: Of course.

I'm wondering if we can get started by just explaining some of the challenges that Ukrainian forces have faced, especially in recent days as Russian troops -- as Russian troops really seem to be making some gains, even intensifying their efforts.

DAVIS: Look, I think the key challenge, the Ukrainian face, Ukrainian side faces is lack of manpower. They are thinly stretched across a very broad front line in the Donetsk and Luhansk area. The Russians have identified this as a weakness, and they've made a number of breakthroughs, admittedly very small-scale breakthroughs. These are not large pushes.

These are small units that are infiltrating into Ukrainian rear and so the Ukrainians are having to redeploy forces to find those breakthrough areas. And that's weakening their front line. If the Russians can continue to make breakthroughs and find weak spots. Then potentially what

weakening their front line. If the Russians can continue to weakening their front line. If the Russians can continue to make breakthroughs and find weak spots. Then potentially what they could do is exploit a breakthrough in force. And that would then enable them to move much larger forces into the Ukrainian rear, cut off their logistics routes. And that would imperil the entire front line for the Ukrainian defenses.

So Ukraine is currently challenged primarily by lack of people on the front line. And on the Russian side. This intensification that we've seen, especially just as recent as yesterday, with some recent strikes. What should that tell us about the Russian leaders sort of mindset as he gets ready to head to Alaska right now? You think that they would be at least a scale back, perhaps if peace is on the horizon? Does this paint sort of a picture? Thats quite the contrary.

DAVIS: Look, Putin is not interested in peace. He has no intention of signing either a ceasefire that is substantial content or let alone a peace agreement. What he wants is to continue to make progress. He'll utilize and exploit the Alaska summit with President Trump to his advantage. He'll trying to extract concessions on Ukraine, but also try and widen the, the discussion agenda to areas outside of Ukraine to essentially manipulate Trump into giving him concessions for little in return.

And as for the situation on the front line in Ukraine, I think that what you will see is the Russians may hold back on some of these large air and drone strikes missile strikes that they've been doing for a few days whilst these summit talks are going on. But what's the summit talks are over. The Russians will intensify those strikes once again.

So key point here is Russian. Putin is not interested in peace. What he wants is to extract the maximum concessions from the Alaska talks, then continue the war, because he feels that he can win militarily, militarily, on the ground.

SANDOVAL: And keeping that analysis in mind, which is critical. What would be any potential incentive then for Putin, aside from trying to seek to seek out those concessions that you mentioned? I mean, does he have any sort of incentive to try to perhaps agree with President Trump on some of his conditions?

DAVIS: Not really. I mean, in the sense that, I think Putin realizes that he can continue to push forward. He's taking heavy losses. But from Putin's perspective, the loss of human life doesn't really matter. So therefore, he can continue to push forward, continue to gain

territory, exploit Ukraine's lack of manpower along the front lines, continue to launch these large missile and drone strikes with the Russian military industrial capacity able to support that. And if President Trump gives him concessions, he'll pocket those. But he really won't be interested in pursuing either a significant ceasefire or an actual peace agreement.

The only way he wants a peace agreement is if he achieves his goals, which is control of the Donbas, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia so that he can then, wrest his forces, rebuild, regroup and then launch another war down the track.

SANDOVAL: Yeah. Malcolm Davis, thank you so much for all this very important insight. A reminder that while these two leaders meet in Alaska, that war rages on, on the front lines. Malcolm, thank you.

DAVIS: Thank you.

SANDOVAL: Still ahead, California's governor moving ahead with a plan to reshape his states congressional map. Why Gavin Newsom is now blaming Donald Trump for the move, and also what he says may come next.

Plus, Israel's prime minister is now pushing to resettle displaced Palestinians from Gaza. Details on his latest remarks coming up.

You're watching EARLY START.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:27:35]

SANDOVAL: Officials in Washington, D.C., they are pushing back against an order making the Drug Enforcement Agency chief the so- called emergency police commissioner in the nation's capital. Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered Terry Cole be given full control of Washington, D.C.'s police department, which is about 4,000 employees. But D.C.'s mayor actually says that the federal government lacks the power to make such a change.

And this all comes just days after President Trump declared a crime emergency in Washington, D.C., and that sent in the national guard as well as deployed FBI agents to carry out patrol duty on the streets. And those moves, they have outraged many residents in D.C., leading to protests on some of the streets there.

Trump says it's all part of a plan to improve things in the nation's capital.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: So we will have crime under control very shortly in D.C. But there record numbers and sadly, what I guess the mayor did. But whoever it was, they asked the numbers to be fudged so that it would show less crime than the fact. The fact is, it's worse than it's ever been.

They are giving us phony crime stats just like they gave other stats in the financial world. But they're phony crime stats and Washington, D.C. is at its worst point, and it will soon be at its best point. You're going to have a very safe. You're going to have a crime free city. I mean, I say that you have virtually crime free city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And California Governor Gavin Newsom, he's now moving ahead with his push to redraw the state's congressional maps. Newsom says that he hopes to put.