Trump-Putin summit: What to know

President Donald Trump and Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin meet on Friday, and the stakes are high. The Summit could lay the foundation for peace in Ukraine, it could also influence the global balance of power.

Here's what you need to know about this meeting.

WHO:

U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin. Each will have a translator and a five-member delegation.

WHAT:

The primary goal of the meeting is to start a diplomatic process that leads to an end to the war in Ukraine. President Trump says this first meeting will be more of a 'feeling out' meeting where he gets a sense of where things stand and how seriously President Putin wants to end the fighting. He says this meeting, if it goes well, would lay the foundation for a second meeting, which would include Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and would, in theory, have the potential to produce an actual peace agreement.

It's reported that Trump and Putin will meet one-on-one, with their translators, and then later involve their respective delegations in a larger meeting.

The two leaders plan to hold a joint news conference following the conclusion of the meetings.

WHERE:

Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, which is near Anchorage.

WHEN:

The initial meeting with Putin is expected to take place at 2:30 p.m. CDT.

WHY:

Ending the war in Ukraine was an objective President Trump spoke about frequently during the 2024 presidential campaign. He often said he would "end the war in a day," once he was back in office. He has also repeatedly called the conflict "Biden's war," insisting that it would never have even started if he had been re-elected in 2020. Trump says he laments the tremendous loss of life in the fighting and wants to end it.

It's not clear, in the view of many Western analysts, that Vladimir Putin actually wants to end the war. But Putin likely sees holding a face-to-face, bilateral meeting with the U.S. president, on U.S. soil, as a win for Russia, both domestically and internationally, a throwback to the days when Moscow and the Soviet Union were seen as a global superpower.

Trump told reporters that there would be "serious consequences" for Russia if he concludes that Putin is not actually serious about finding a path to peace.