Donald Trump’s summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday could be a decisive moment for both the war in Ukraine and the U.S. leader’s anomalous relationship with his Russian counterpart. Trump has long boasted that he’s gotten along well with Putin and spoken admiringly of him,

P resident Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are slated to meet for a highly anticipated one-on-one in Alaska on Friday, Aug. 15 in a rare bilateral meeting on American soil at a time of heightened tensions.

President Donald Trump has often bragged about his warm relationship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. But in the months leading up to the leaders’ first meeting in six years, Trump began asking Europeans and White House aides what’s changed about his counterpart.

Whether the U.S.-Russia summit can lead to a deal to produce peace in Ukraine more than 3 1/2 years after Moscow’s invasion remains to be seen.

Alaska’s military power and Arctic proximity make it a critical yet exposed site for US-Russia diplomacy. Callie Carmichael and LeeAnne Lowry

Paul Whelan joins The lead

President Donald Trump says there will be “very severe consequences” if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not agree to stop the war against Ukraine after the two leaders meet for a summit later this week in Alaska.

President Donald Trump sought to lower expectations for his scheduled meeting in Alaska on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling reporters that a second meeting that would include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would be more consequential.