Jake Lapham, in Anchorage

BBC News

US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are meeting in Anchorage to discuss how to end the war in Ukraine.

The venue for the high-profile meeting is Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson – a US military installation on the northern edge of Alaska’s most populated city.

The two leaders shook hands on the red carpet connecting their two planes on the base’s tarmac, and appeared to exchange pleasantries. They then rode in Trump’s limousine to the venue where their talks are taking place.

White House officials have said the base satisfied security requirements for hosting the two world leaders. And, during the height of summer tourism, there were few other options for the hastily arranged meeting.

Three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine this summer, held at Trump’s behest, have yet to bring the two sides any closer to peace.

Here is what we know about the venue of these talks, and what we can expect from the meeting – as well as the key timings.

Trump and Putin began discussions around 11:00 local time (20:00 BST) after briefly appearing before the world’s media.

Putin was asked questions by journalists, including “when will you stop killing civilians?” and “why should Trump trust your words”? The responses from Putin and Trump were inaudible over the shouting reporters.

They are meeting face-to-face joined by translators. Each side has also selected two top presidential aides to join the talks.

Ahead of the meeting, Russian officials told reporters that the discussions could take up to seven hours. The leaders are also expected to have lunch together.

A news conference is expected, however it is unclear whether the two men will appear together at a joint press conference or speak separately. Trump will also do an interview with Fox News during his time in Alaska.

The US president is then scheduled to leave Anchorage and head back to the White House around 17:45 Alaska time (02:45 BST on Saturday).

Trump has been pushing hard – without much success – to end the war in Ukraine.

As a presidential candidate, he pledged that he could end the war within 24 hours of taking office. He has also repeatedly argued that the war “never would have happened” had he been president at the time of Russia’s 2022 invasion.

Last month, Trump told the BBC that he was “disappointed” by Putin.

Frustrations grew and Trump set an 8 August deadline for Putin to agree to an immediate ceasefire or face more severe US sanctions.

As the deadline hit, Trump instead announced he and Putin would meet in person on 15 August.

Ahead of the meeting, the White House sought to play down speculation the bilateral could yield a ceasefire. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described it as a “listening exercise”.

Speaking to Fox News Radio on Thursday, Trump said there is a “25% chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting”.

The US purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, lending a historical resonance to the meeting. It became a US state in 1959.

Russian presidential assistant Yuri Ushakov pointed out that the two countries are neighbours, with only the Bering Strait separating them.

“It seems quite logical for our delegation simply to fly over the Bering Strait and for such an important and anticipated summit of the leaders of the two countries to be held in Alaska,” Ushakov said.

The Russian delegation may be intending for the trip to highlight how territories can change hands, as a road map for their hoped for outcome in Ukraine. The visit to the US also comes after years of Putin being declared a pariah by the US and European nations.

The last time Alaska took centre-stage in an American diplomatic event was in March 2021, when Joe Biden’s newly minted diplomatic and national security team met their Chinese counterparts in Anchorage.

The sit-down turned acrimonious, with the Chinese accusing the Americans of “condescension and hypocrisy”.

In Anchorage there have been few signs of the impending high-stakes meeting, except for the international media that have descended on the area.

Journalists are rubbing elbows with holidaymakers from the “lower 48” states on visits to the Alaskan wilderness during the height of the tourist season.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not invited to attend the talks, but he published a message on Friday welcoming them.

Zelensky called on Russia to “end the war that it itself has started”, and said the meeting “is needed”.

“Security guarantees are needed. Lasting peace is needed,” he wrote on X. “Everyone knows the key objectives. I want to thank everyone who is helping to achieve real results.”

Trump said on Monday that Zelensky has “been to a lot of meetings” .

Trump did, however, say that the Ukrainian leader would be the first person he would call afterwards.

Trump and Zelensky met virtually on Wednesday and were joined by several European leaders.

Putin had requested that Zelensky be excluded, although the White House has previously said that Trump was willing to hold a trilateral in which all three leaders were present.

On Thursday, Trump reiterated that his meeting with Putin could lead to a second meeting, which could include Zelensky.

Zelensky has said any agreements without input from Ukraine would amount to “dead decisions”.

Russia seemed to revel in Ukraine’s absence from the talks, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov wearing a shirt bearing the acronym for the Soviet Union on his sweater as he arrived in Alaska.

Reporters flying with the Russian delegation were served chicken kyiv on the plane. The dish, a chicken cutlet made of pounded chicken breast meat and filled with garlic butter, bears the name of the Ukrainian capital.

Putin is being joined at the negotiation table by Lavrov and foreign policy adviser Ushakov.

Lavrov and Ushakov are veteran diplomats who are central to shaping Russian foreign policy.

Lavrov has led the foreign ministry for over 20 years and Ushakov, a key presidential adviser for more than a decade, previously served as Russia’s ambassador to the US.

Despite Putin being able to speak English, although he rarely does, both leaders will be joined by their translators.

Trump will also be joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.

Before joining the state department, Rubio was considered a Russia hawk as a senator.

“To achieve a peace, I think we all recognise that there’ll have to be some conversation about security guarantees,” he told reporters at the state department on Thursday.

“There’ll have to be some conversation about… territorial disputes and claims, and what they’re fighting over.”

The meeting in Alaska comes after US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff held “highly productive” talks with Putin in Moscow earlier this month, according to Trump.

While both Russia and Ukraine have long said that they want the war to end, both countries want things that the other harshly opposes.

Trump said on Monday he was “going to try to get some of that [Russian-occupied] territory back for Ukraine”. But he also warned that there might have to be “some swapping, changes in land”.

Ukraine, however, has been adamant that it will not accept Russian control of regions that Moscow has seized, including Crimea.

Zelensky pushed back this week against any idea of “swapping” territories.

“We will not reward Russia for what it has perpetrated,” the Ukrainian president said.

Meanwhile, Putin has not budged from his territorial demands, Ukraine’s neutrality and the future size of its army.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in part, over Putin’s belief the Western defensive alliance, Nato, was using the neighbouring country to gain a foothold to bring its troops closer to Russia’s borders.

Ultimately, Putin’s “central objective lies in obtaining… the geopolitical ‘neutralisation’ of Ukraine”, according to analyst Tatyana Stanovaya.

“It is extremely difficult to convey what is truly at stake… as people often simply cannot accept that Putin might want so much – and be serious about it. Unfortunately, he can.”

The Trump administration has been attempting to sway European leaders on a ceasefire deal that would hand over swathes of Ukrainian territory to Russia, the BBC’s US partner CBS News has reported.

The agreement would allow Russia to keep control of the Crimean peninsula, and take the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which is made up of Donetsk and Luhansk, according to sources familiar with the talks.

Russia illegally occupied Crimea in 2014 and its forces control the majority of the Donbas region.

Under the deal, Russia would have to give up the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where it currently has some military control.

With roots tracing back to the Cold War, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson is Alaska’s largest military base. The 64,000 acre installation is a key US site for Arctic military readiness.

Snow-capped mountains, icy lakes and picturesque glaciers frame the base, which regularly shivers through temperatures as low as -12C (15F) in winter. However the leaders have a comparatively pleasant temperatures of around 16C (61F) on Friday.

When Trump visited the base during his first term, in 2019, he said the troops there “serve in our country’s last frontier as America’s first line of defence”.

More than 30,000 people live on the site, accounting for approximately 10% of the population of Anchorage.

Built in 1940, the base was a critical air defence site and central command point to ward off threats from the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

At its peak in 1957, it hosted 200 fighter jets, and multiple air traffic control and early warning radar systems, earning it the nickname of “Top Cover for North America”.

The base continues to grow today due to its strategic location and training facilities.