Air Force One departed Washington just after 8 a.m. ET for Anchorage, Alaska, where Trump will meet Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson at 3:30 p.m. ET, followed by a lunch with delegations from both countries then a joint press conference with Trump and Putin, according to the White House.

One key party who will not be in attendance Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump said Thursday he hopes the summit will lead to a second meeting that would include Zelenskyy.

President Donald Trump ‘s face-to-face high-stakes summit with President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday could determine the fate of European security as well as the trajectory of the war in Ukraine. The exclusion of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy already deals a heavy blow to the West’s policy of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”