WASHINGTON, August 10. /TASS/. The choice of the state of Alaska in the United States as the venue for a new Russian-US summit reflects the confidence of US President Donald Trump that agreements on Ukrainian conflict settlement are within reach, an established US political expert said on Sunday.

Commenting in an interview with TASS on the upcoming meeting on August 15 in the US State of Alaska between US President Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the US expert stated that Trump was still confident about reaching a deal on the conflict settlement in Ukraine.

"The choice of Alaska reflects a clear confidence by President Trump that the upcoming summit will pave the way for a comprehensive framework deal on ending the Ukraine conflict," Mark Episkopos, a research fellow in the US Quincy Institute’s Eurasia Program said.

According to him, "The decision to opt for such an unconventional, distinctly non-neutral venue, as opposed to Turkey or the Arab states where a number of bilateral US-Russia contacts were held earlier this year, is evocative of the significance President Trump places in this meeting."

"It's unlikely that he would go for such striking and in many ways symbolic— as the 1867 sale of Alaska is itself one of the biggest deals ever conducted between Russia and the US— optics unless he fully expected to walk away with a major deal," Episcopos noted.

"This latest diplomatic push differs from previous attempts in that there is a large degree of alignment between Washington and Moscow on the outlines of what a settlement should entail," he continued. "The sequencing pursued so far suggests negotiators are seeking resolution on the territorial issue before moving on to other key topics, including but not limited to Ukraine's non-bloc status and discussions around postwar security guarantees."

"The diplomatic progress made over the past week is premised on the recognition that all these issues are linked and have to be addressed holistically to wind up with a durable, substantive settlement that maintains buy-in from all the stakeholders-Russia, Ukraine, the US, and Europe," Episcopos added.

Late this week, the US President Trump announced an intention to meet personally with his Russian counterpart in Alaska on August 15. Then, the plans for these talks were confirmed by Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov.

According to Ushakov, Putin and Trump will "undoubtedly focus on discussing options for achieving a long-term peaceful resolution to the Ukrainian crisis." The Kremlin expects the next meeting between the two presidents to take place on Russian soil, Ushakov emphasized.

A meeting between Putin and Trump in Alaska next week comes in the wake of the Russian president’s meeting with US Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff in the Kremlin earlier this week.

On August 6, Putin received US Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff in the Kremlin. After the meeting, Ushakov said that Witkoff had received some signals on the Ukrainian issue, and in turn, reciprocal signals had been received from US President Donald Trump.

A White House official told reporters on Wednesday that the meeting between Putin and Witkoff, in the opinion of the Washington administration, went well, and Russia demonstrated interest in continuing cooperation with the United States.

Germany’s Bild later reported that Trump held a telephone call with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz informing him that "the conversation between Witkoff and Putin was more productive than expected."

The meeting between Putin and Witkoff was also attended by Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and Special Presidential Envoy for Economic Cooperation with Foreign Countries.

Witkoff arrived in Moscow at about 7:00 a.m. Moscow time (4:00 a.m. GMT) on Wednesday, where he was met at Vnukovo Airport by Dmitriev. About an hour later, the two took a walk through Zaryadye Park in central Moscow.