A photograph released by the Mayor of Sochi, Russia, showing firefighters working at a fuel depot outside the city, after a Ukrainian drone attack, this month.
President Trump had suggested a meeting between Russia and Ukraine’s leaders could be a potential next step on the path to peace. Russian state news media barely mentioned the idea.
The Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, left, and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, second left, accompanied President Vladimir V. Putin to Alaska on Friday.
President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus during a news conference in Minsk in 2023. President Trump said he spoke on Friday with Mr. Lukashenko, who has long been shunned by Western leaders.
Army recruitment advertisements in Moscow in June. After President Trump’s election, some Russians had high hopes that he would rapidly end the war in Ukraine.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, will lead the entourages of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Trump during their bilateral meeting in Anchorage on Friday.
Over recent months, the Kremlin has been trying to move the diplomatic focus away from Ukraine to bilateral issues, such as trade and strategic stability.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in a photo released by Russian state media on Thursday. He told officials that he hoped to discuss “strategic offensive arms control.”