Russian President Vladimir Putin paid tribute to Soviet pilots buried in Alaska after up his meeting with US President Donald Trump. The Russian President visited Fort Richardson National Cemetery near Anchorage.
According to Reuters, the pilots were killed in training accidents or due to Alaska’s harsh weather while ferrying US-made aircraft to the Soviet Union under the wartime Lend-Lease Programme.
During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union were allies against Nazi Germany. Under the Lend-Lease Programme, Washington supplied Moscow with nearly 8,000 aircraft.
Between 1942 and 1945, Soviet pilots trained with American crews in Fairbanks, Alaska. After training, they flew the planes across the Bering Strait to Siberia, along a route known as the Alaska-Siberia air road.
However, not all pilots completed the journey. Some died in crashes or were caught in severe weather.
For many years, the cemetery’s existence was scarcely mentioned in Russian archives. It was not until 1990 that a Soviet war veterans’ delegation confirmed the site’s history. Today, the site remains well maintained, with inscriptions in both English and Russian.
What happened during Trump-Putin meeting?
Putin concluded his joint press conference with Trump by inviting him for further talks in Moscow. “Next time in Moscow,” Putin said.
Trump accepted the suggestion, saying, “That’s an interesting one. I’ll get a little heat on that one, but I can see it possibly happening.”
Trump said that the next step now rests with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, adding that a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin would be arranged soon.
“Now it’s really up to President Zelenskyy to get it done,” Trump told the local media. “They’re going to set up a meeting now between President Zelenskyy and President Putin and myself, I guess,” Trump told the media, as reported by CNN.
He declined to disclose the remaining issues holding up a deal, saying only that he wants “to see what we can get done.”
Despite the lack of a formal agreement, Trump described the summit as a success, rating it “10 out of 10, in the sense that we got along great.”
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Shivam Verma is a journalist with over three years of experience in digital newsrooms. He currently works at NewsX, having previously worked for Firstpost and DNA India. A postgraduate diploma holder in Integrated Journalism from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, Shivam focuses on international affairs, diplomacy, defence, and politics. Beyond the newsroom, he is passionate about football—both playing and watching—and enjoys travelling to explore new places and cuisines.
