Good news has emerged from Air Force One for Ukraine, the UK and the European Union ahead of the start of the historic summit between Russia's Vladimir Putin the US's Donald Trump.
Trump has said that Putin “wants a piece” of America’s economic success "because his country is not hot economically, in fact, it’s the opposite".
And the US President added: “I noticed he’s bringing a lot of business people from Russia, and that’s good. I like that because they want to do business, but they’re not doing business until we get the war settled.”
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Slowly, the shape of a dramatic 24 hours in world politics is starting to emerge, with Putin wanting some form of economic support from Trump - and Trump possibly using that to get some form of acceptable peace deal in Ukraine.
Trump has also said today that he won't do a deal over Ukraine over the heads of Kyiv - this is vital, and has been a demand from the UK and EU, among others.
So - cautious optimism. But there are plenty of worries too - notably, why did Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov turn up in Alaska in a USSR jumper? Lavrov knew full well that he would be photographed in a top which referenced the Soviet empire and Russian expansionism.
Ukraine receives good news hours before the Trump-Putin summit as world holds its breath - Christopher Hope
|Getty Images
And will Trump agree to underwrite any peace deal?
In short, the US President has to in order to make any peace deal - which would have to be agreed at a later summit, including Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky - stick.
He has already warned that there is a 25 per cent chance that the summit fails. It is not impossible that he walks away if no deal can be done.
I thought Trump appeared to be less chatty and more steely as he boarded Air Force One today. If you take away all the bluster, Trump's second term is all about cementing his place in history.
That is why the stakes are so high - and the world is holding its breath ahead of talks getting underway tonight in Alaska.