Donald Trump has touched down in Alaska to take part in crunch talks with Vladimir Putin about the war with Ukraine – with the Russian president arriving about half an hour later.
The American president is meeting Putin in Alaska to discuss bringing an end to the Russia-Ukraine war which has been raging for more than three years.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky once said he wanted to end by 2023, and Trump said he would end the war within ’24 hours’ of being re-elected last year.
But now Trump and Putin are set to meet for the first time in six years for a one-on-one meeting about Ukraine’s future that left Zelensky off the guest list.
It’s a high stakes meeting, with Trump simply writing ‘HIGH STAKES!!!’ on his Truth Social account before taking off for Alaska.
The US president has beaten Putin to the summit, touching down at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Alaska on Air Force One at about 10.20am local time, with Putin arriving at about 10.54am.
Once both the US and Russian presidents have touched down, they’re set to meet at 11.30am local time (8.30pm BST) during a ‘working breakfast’.
Trump and Putin were initially expected to meet behind closed doors, with interpreters the only other people in the room.
A senior White House official has now told NBC News that the one-on-one will now be a three-on-three, with US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Trump’s top negotiator Steve Witkoff joining on the American side.
It’s not yet known who will be joining Putin.
Once that’s done, the two presidents are expected to hold a wider meeting with their delegations, before Trump gives Mr Zelensky and other European leaders a call, and a joint press conference is held.
Trump’s stance on the war has swung wildly in recent months. One moment, the president is humiliating Zelensky in the Oval Office. The next, he’s calling out Putin’s ‘bulls**t’ and saying he’s ‘disgusted’ with him.
In comparison, Putin has remained fairly tight-lipped about his goals for the meeting.
‘The current American administration… is making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict,’ he said yesterday.
Mr Zelensky is not best pleased about the ‘bilateral’ meeting excluding him, and has raised concerns that talks ‘will not achieve anything’ without Ukraine having a seat at the table.
‘We understand Russia’s intention to try to deceive America – we will not allow this,’ he said over the weekend.
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