Trump-Putin Alaska Summit LIVE Updates: Trump and Putin to hold crucial talks on Ukraine conflict in Alaska

On Friday, US President Donald Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska for a high-stakes summit that may determine not just the course of the Ukrainian conflict, but also Europe’s security.

The meeting allows Trump to demonstrate to the world that he is both a skilled negotiator and a global peacemaker. He and his allies have portrayed him as a heavyweight negotiator capable of bringing the killing to an end, something he once boasted of doing rapidly.

For Putin, a summit with Trump offers a long-sought opportunity to try to negotiate a deal that would cement Russia’s gains, block Kyiv’s bid to join the NATO military alliance and eventually pull Ukraine back into Moscow’s orbit.

Trump faces tremendous dangers. By allowing Putin into US land, the president is providing Russia’s leader with the recognition he seeks after being ostracised during his invasion of Ukraine three and a half years earlier. The absence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from the meeting also strikes a major blow to the West’s stance of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” and raises the prospect that Trump may agree to a settlement that Ukraine does not want.

Any success is far from guaranteed, especially as Russia and Ukraine continue to hold opposing positions on peace. Putin has consistently opposed any interim truce, citing a halt in Western weaponry supply and a freeze on Ukraine’s mobilisation efforts as criteria, both of which Kyiv and its Western backers have refused.