Overview

• The summit is set for 11:30 a.m. Alaska time on Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson under tight security with airspace over Anchorage closed.
• President Trump has labeled the meeting a “listening exercise,” warning there’s a 25% chance it fails and aiming to set up a later three-way summit with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
• Vladimir Putin has praised Trump’s “energetic and sincere” efforts and signaled he may bring up nuclear arms control and expanded economic ties.
• No Ukrainian or European Union officials will attend, raising concerns that a bilateral agreement could sideline Kyiv and give Russia leverage over territorial concessions.
• Analysts caution that recent Russian battlefield gains and deep divides over land swaps make an immediate ceasefire deal unlikely without broader multilateral involvement.