US President Donald Trump left Washington early Friday for Anchorage, where he will hold his first in-person meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2019. Putin’s aircraft is due to touch down at 11:00 a.m. local time, and Trump has said he will greet the Russian leader on the runway before the pair begin talks at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. The summit will open with a one-on-one meeting and continue over a working breakfast involving senior officials from both sides. Trump’s 16-member delegation includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and special envoy Steve Witkoff. Moscow’s team is led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defence Minister Andrey Belousov and sovereign-wealth-fund chief Kirill Dmitriev. A joint press conference is planned if the discussions make headway. Trump says the objective is an immediate cease-fire that could pave the way for a wider peace agreement in Ukraine, cautioning that the encounter carries a 25 percent risk of failure. He has threatened “very severe consequences” should Putin balk at ending the conflict but also indicated willingness to organise a follow-up meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders if progress is made. The talks come as battlefield clashes continue and European governments warn against any settlement that sidelines Kyiv. While Kyiv and its allies insist that no land concessions be granted, the Kremlin has signalled interest in linking a cease-fire to restrictions on Western arms supplies and Ukraine’s NATO ambitions. Both Washington and Moscow say economic cooperation and nuclear-arms control could also be on the agenda.