President Donald Trump has been unable to negotiate a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, despite vowing to end the war on Day One of his second term. He’s hoping a highly anticipated sit-down with Russian President Vladimir Putin will help change that.
Trump is meeting with Putin face-to-face in Alaska on Friday, the first confab between the two leaders in Trump’s second term. The US president has met with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky several times — including a wildly tense public confrontation in February — spoken to both leaders by phone and sent top envoys to help negotiate a ceasefire agreement. Still, Trump and other foreign leaders have said it doesn’t seem like Putin is interested in peace, as the war has dragged on for more than three years.
While Trump often speaks of his “very good relationship” with Putin, it’s proving to take more than a phone call, threatening new sanctions or calling the Russian president “absolutely CRAZY” to get him to change course in Ukraine.
With that in mind, Trump and White House officials have been trying to temper expectations ahead of Friday, saying it’s not up to him to make a deal. Still, the meeting marks a more aggressive pressure campaign on Putin, as Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with the Russian leader.
Here’s a look at some of the major developments that led to this historic meeting:
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