Macron: Trump was ready to hand Russia unoccupied Ukrainian territories at the Anchorage summit

President of France Emmanuel Macron stated that during the Anchorage summit in August 2025, Donald Trump was prepared to agree to a deal under which Ukraine would have ceded territories not even occupied by Russian forces.

Macron made this claim in an interview with the France TV channel, which aired on June 19.

According to Macron, following the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, the proposed deal “held out the hope of an agreement that would have forced Ukraine to hand over territories that Russia had not even yet seized.” The French president said that European leaders flew to Washington in mid-August and told the American president that “this is impossible.”

Macron presented this revelation as part of a broader account of the evolution of Trump’s views on the Ukrainian question. “Remember January–February 2025… He was convinced that Ukraine was losing. Everything went wrong during the meeting with Zelensky in the Oval Office,” the French president said. According to him, Trump came to power convinced that Ukraine was doomed and insisted on the earliest possible settlement on those terms.

Macron’s words are consistent with press reports from that time. The New York Times reported in August 2025 that Trump had backed a plan to transfer to Russia territories still under Ukrainian control and had dropped demands for an immediate ceasefire, deferring to Putin’s preference for a broader agreement involving territorial concessions. After the Alaska talks, European leaders issued a joint statement insisting that “borders must not be changed by force” and that territorial decisions are the exclusive prerogative of Ukraine.

The American 28-point peace plan, presented in November 2025 and drawn up without European participation, envisaged that Ukraine would be asked to withdraw from areas of Donetsk region under its control and to accept Russian control over the occupied territories.

Macron also said that Trump ultimately acknowledged the falsity of predictions about Ukraine’s imminent collapse. “He was faced with courageous, resourceful people whom he respects,” the French president said. These words came several days after the G7 summit in Évian, where Trump stated that the seized territories “must be returned to Ukraine” and pledged to focus efforts on ending the war.

Macron presented the journey from the Alaska negotiations to the current G7 consensus as evidence that European pressure and Ukraine’s resilience had fundamentally transformed the diplomatic landscape.