Military personnel and the media stand outside Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 14, 2025, ahead of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Photo: VCG

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to hold talks in Anchorage, Alaska on Friday. The meeting of the Russian and US leaders at a Cold War-era air force base will be their first face-to-face talks since Trump returned to the White House, Reuters reported.

The meeting will take place at 11 am Anchorage local time, with a focus on finding a settlement to the Ukraine conflict.

According to Moscow, global "peace and security" as well as "further development of bilateral cooperation" in the economy and trade will also be on the agenda, Russia Today (RT) reported on Friday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived on Friday, but he declined to "predict anything in advance" regarding the summit's potential results, RT reported.

For Russia, despite maintaining a prevailing position on the battlefield, its participation in the talks signals a desire to initiate a peace process, Yang Jin, an associate research fellow with the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday.

Trump told reporters in the White House on Thursday that he believes Putin wants to make peace in Ukraine, and that the Russian president will not "mess around" at their summit, according to CNN.

Trump also said that he will know within several minutes whether or not they're going to have a good meeting. "If it's a bad meeting, it'll end very quickly. And if it's a good meeting, we're going to end up getting peace in the pretty near future," Trump added.

Earlier on Wednesday, Trump threatened "severe consequences" if Putin does not agree to peace in Ukraine but also said that a meeting between them could swiftly be followed by a second that would include the leader of Ukraine, Reuters reported.

Yang said that for the Trump administration, the talks are imbued with political calculations. Having fallen short of previous pledges to resolve the conflict within 24 hours or 100 days, the Trump administration is now anxious to explore a path to resolution.

According to media reports, the talks have also captured the attention of European leaders.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday held a breakfast meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ahead of the talks to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, the BBC reported. The two agreed there was "a powerful sense of unity and a strong resolve to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine" at their meeting, according to the report.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday the meeting between Trump and Putin provided an "opportunity" for peace and called on Putin to drop all preconditions for a ceasefire and then meet his Ukrainian counterpart Zelensky, according to CNN.

The White House on Tuesday characterized Trump's meeting with Putin as a "listening exercise," appearing to downplay expectations for a peace deal in in Alaska, CNN reported, citing comments from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt at a White House briefing.

Moscow is ready to present a clear stance at the upcoming summit, Lavrov said, adding that the two countries have "already done much" during the visit of US envoy Steve Witkoff to Russia. 

Yang said it seems that both parties wish to probe each other's bottom lines, and they both appear to harbor a willingness to engage in dialogue and to secure a channel for communication.