US president Donald Trump has said he thinks Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is ready to make a deal to end his invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Trump also said their Alaska summit on Friday would pave the way for decisive talks involving Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
“I believe now he’s convinced that he’s going to make a deal. He’s going to make a deal. I think he’s going to. And we’re going to find out - I’m going to know very quickly,” Mr Trump told Fox News Radio on Thursday, adding that the summit had only a “25 per cent chance” of failure.
“Depending on what happens with my meeting, I’m going to be calling up president Zelenskiy, and let’s get him over to wherever we’re going to meet,” he added.
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“This meeting sets up the second meeting. The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that’s going to be a meeting where they make a deal.”
Mr Trump said three locations had been discussed for a possible follow-up summit. He did not name them, but said staying on Alaska was also an option.
He declined to give details on what a peace deal might entail or what he might do to raise pressure on Russia.
He did say more economic sanctions would be on the table, however, and suggested that some sort of territorial concessions could come into play.
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“I don’t want to use the word ‘divvy’ things up. But you know, to a certain extent, it’s not a bad term, okay?” he said. “We’ll do the best we can, and I think we’ll have a good result in the end.”
Ahead of the summit, Russia has publicly refused to move from its key demands: that Ukraine permanently hands over five partly or fully occupied regions and accepts limitations on its sovereignty, including a ban on ever joining Nato.
Kyiv says it can never sign away territory to Moscow, must have the right to follow its own geopolitical course, and would need watertight western security guarantees to prevent another Russian invasion.
“To achieve a peace, I think we all recognise that there’ll have to be some conversation about security guarantees. There’ll have to be some conversation about … territorial disputes and claims,” said US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
“All these things will be part of a comprehensive thing. But I think the president’s hope is to achieve some stoppage of fighting so that those conversations can happen.”
Mr Trump and Mr Putin are scheduled to meet at a military base in Anchorage at 11:30am local time (8:30pm in Ireland). They will hold one-on-one talks with interpreters and then move to a working lunch with their delegations before speaking to the media.
Mr Putin gathered Russia’s top political, economic, military and intelligence officials in the Kremlin on Thursday for a briefing on plans for the summit.
“I will update you on the current stage of our engagement with the present US administration, which … has been making what I consider to be fairly vigorous and sincere efforts to halt hostilities, resolve the crisis, and reach agreements that serve the interests of all parties involved in this conflict,” he said.
“The aim is to establish long-term conditions for peace not only between our countries but also in Europe and indeed globally – especially if we proceed to subsequent stages involving agreements on strategic offensive arms control.”
Mr Zelenskiy discussed possible security guarantees for Ukraine with British prime minister Keir Starmer in London.
Mr Starmer’s office said Friday’s summit was “a viable chance to make progress as long as Putin takes action to prove he is serious about peace“.
