'High stakes': Donald Trump's message before meeting with Vladimir Putin; departs for Alaska

Donald Trump is en route to Alaska for a highly anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. Raising the expectations from the meeting, Trump commented "high stakes" before boarding the plane.

The US president has, however, put the chances of the summit failing at around 25 per cent, while suggesting that a successful outcome could pave the way for inviting Zelenskyy to a three-way meeting with Putin.

"The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that's going to be a meeting where they make a deal," Trump told Fox News Radio on Thursday.

"This meeting sets up the second meeting, but there is a 25 percent chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting," he added.

Scheduled to start at 11.30am local time (1930 GMT) and followed by a joint press conference, the meeting marks the first summit between the two leaders since Putin met Joe Biden in June 2021.