For Putin, Friday’s meeting is a chance to repair his relationship with Trump and unlace the West’s isolation of his country following its invasion of Ukraine 3 1/2 years ago. He’s been open about his desire to rebuild U.S.-Russia relations now that Trump is back in the White House.

Donald Trump will meet with Vladimir Putin “one-on-one” on Friday to discuss the war in Ukraine. The talks are scheduled to start at 11:30am local time (8.30pm BST) and will be followed by a press conference. The highly-anticipated summit, which Ukraine has been shut out of, will be attended only by the two leaders and their interpreters.

The U.S.-Russia summit in Alaska is happening where East meets West — quite literally — in a place familiar to both countries as a Cold War front line of missile defense, radar outposts and