Russian President Vladimir Putin is travelling to the Pacific Coast in an armoured limo ahead of his highly anticipated summit with Donald Trump in Alaska, with a massive convoy sweeping through sealed-off roads.
Footage shows a long line of black vehicles speeding along a road in Magadan, flanked by flashing police cars and trailed by what appears to be an ambulance.
The tight security comes as Putin prepares to sit down with Trump on Friday for their first face-to-face meeting since 2018.
The talks, set against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Ukraine, are expected to focus on finding a path toward a ceasefire.
Trump extended the invitation at the Russian leader’s suggestion, but the US president has since been defensive and warned that the meeting could be over within minutes if Putin does not compromise.
Every word and gesture will be closely watched by European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was not included and has publicly refused pressure from Trump to surrender territory seized by Russia.
Trump, usually fond of boasting of his deal-making skills, has called the summit a ‘feel-out meeting’ to test Putin, whom he last saw in 2019.
‘I am president, and he’s not going to mess around with me,’ Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday.
‘If it’s a bad meeting, it’ll end very quickly, and if it’s a good meeting, we’re going to end up getting peace in the pretty near future,’ said Trump, who gave the summit a one in four chance of failure.
Trump has promised to consult with European leaders and Zelensky, saying that any final agreement would come in a three-way meeting with Trump and the Ukrainian president to ‘divvy up’ territory.
Trump has voiced admiration for Putin in the past and faced some of the most intense criticism of his political career after a 2018 summit in which he appeared cowed and accepted Putin’s denials of US intelligence findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 US election.
Before his return to the White House, Trump boasted of his relationship with Putin, blamed predecessor Joe Biden for the war and vowed to bring peace within 24 hours.
But despite repeated calls to Putin, and a stunning February 28 White House meeting in which Trump publicly berated Zelensky, the Russian leader has shown no signs of compromise.
Trump has acknowledged his frustration with Putin and warned of ‘very severe consequences’ if he does not accept a ceasefire – but also agreed to see him in Alaska.
The talks are set to begin at 11:30 am (1900 GMT) Friday at the Elmendorf Air Force Base, the largest US military installation in Alaska and a Cold War base for surveillance of the Soviet Union.
Adding to the historical significance, the United States bought Alaska in 1867 from Russia – a deal Moscow has cited to show the legitimacy of land swaps.
The Kremlin said it expected Putin and Trump to meet alone with interpreters before a working lunch with aides.
Neither leader is expected to step off the base into Alaska’s largest city of Anchorage, where protesters have put up signs of solidarity with Ukraine.
Putin faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, leading him to curtail travel sharply since the war.
But the United States is not party to the Hague tribunal, and Trump’s Treasury Department temporarily eased sanctions on top Russian officials to allow them to travel and use bank cards in Alaska.
The summit comes amid escalating military activity in eastern Ukraine, particularly in the Donetsk region, where Russian forces have launched a rapid offensive.
Zelensky has firmly rejected any agreement that involves giving up more territory, citing constitutional and security concerns. President Trump has indicated that any potential peace deal may involve territorial adjustments, suggesting ‘some swapping’ of territories.
However, Ukrainian officials have expressed concerns that such proposals could undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty.
The summit is seen as a critical moment in the ongoing conflict, with the potential to either pave the way for a ceasefire or deepen divisions.
Trump has hinted that a peace deal could involve ‘some swapping of territories to the betterment of both’, though details remain vague and controversial.
Last Friday, he said: ‘We are looking to actually get some back and some swapping. It is complicated, actually nothing easy. We are going to get some back, some switched.’
Meanwhile, Russia is believed to present sweeping demands – Ukraine’s withdrawal from regions like Donbas and Crimea, neutrality, and a rejection of NATO, conditions that Ukraine and its allies have long rejected.
However, many analysts warn that without coordinated Western pressure and Ukraine’s central role, the outcome remains uncertain. They also fear the talks could produce a victory for Putin without any guarantees of lasting peace.
It comes as Putin is gearing up to test its nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile after the US president warned him of ‘severe consequences’ if the war continues.
Experts say recent satellite images show intense preparations at the Pankovo test site on Novaya Zemlya, a remote archipelago in the Barents Sea.
The pictures, taken in recent weeks by commercial satellite firm Planet Labs, reveal a surge in personnel, equipment, ships and aircraft linked to earlier tests of the 9M730 Burevestnik, known to NATO as the SSC-X-9 Skyfall.
