Donald Trump said he will not be "messed around" by Vladimir Putin as he said his Kremlin counterpart "would take all of Ukraine" if he wasn't in the White House.
The meeting of the two leaders at a Cold War-era air force base in Alaska will be their first face-to-face talks since President Trump returned to the White House.
President Trump, who once said he would end Russia's war in Ukraine within 24 hours, said the three-and-a-half-year conflict had proven a harder issue to resolve than expected.
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When asked by reporters if he had a strong hand going into today's talks, he said: "I think that President Putin would like to see a deal, I think if I weren’t President he would take over all of Ukraine. But I am President, and he’s not going to mess around."
Meanwhile, Mr Putin praised what he called "sincere efforts" by the US to end the war.
A source close to the Kremlin told reporters it looked as if the two sides had been able to find some unspecified common ground beforehand.
They said: "Apparently, some terms will be agreed upon tomorrow (Friday) because Trump cannot be refused, and we are not in a position to refuse (due to sanctions pressure)."
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The two leaders pictured in 2018
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Mr Putin of bluffing and playing for time to avoid further US sanctions and has ruled out handing Moscow any territory.
Mr Trump has said land transfers between Russia and Ukraine could be a possible way of breaking the loggerheads between the two countries.
Chief among Mr Putin's war aims is complete Russian control over the Donbas industrial region in eastern Ukraine, which comprises the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Despite steady advances, around 25 per cent of Donetsk remains beyond Russian control.
The Russian leaders also wants full control of Ukraine's Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions; Nato membership to be taken off the table for Kyiv; and limits on the size of Ukraine's armed forces.
Demonstrators hold a banner during a protest in solidarity with Ukraine in Anchorage, Alaska
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Ukraine has said these terms are unacceptable and are akin to asking it to capitulate.
Director of democratic resilience at the Center for European Policy Analysis Sam Greene said: "If they (the Russians) are able to put a deal on the table that creates some kind of a ceasefire but that leaves Russia in control of those escalatory dynamics, does not create any kind of genuine deterrence on the ground or in the skies over Ukraine... that would be a wonderful outcome from Putin's perspective."
Speaking this morning, defence secretary John Healey told Sky News: "We will see how the talks go. But the important thing is this is a first step.
"In any negotiations there will have to be decisions about Ukraine with Ukraine. They can’t be taken without Ukraine."
Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomes the Ukrainian President
|REUTERS
State media in Moscow has reported the Foreign Secretary Sergei Lavrov has arrived in Alaska ahead of talks between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, according to state media reports.
Mr Putin is reportedly currently in the town of Magadan in Russia’s Far East, where he is expected to meet the local governor and visit an industrial facility, before departing for Alaska.
The Kremlin needs Mr Trump to help Russia break out of its straitjacket of ever-tightening Western sanctions, or at the very least not to hit Moscow with more sanctions, something the White House has threatened.
Meanwhile, President Trump is pressing for a truce to bolster his credentials as a global peacemaker worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize, something he has made clear is important to him.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has arrived in Alaska
|REUTERS
The Potus told Fox News: “I’ll know within the first two minutes, three minutes, four minutes or five minutes...whether or not we’re going to have a good meeting or a bad meeting.
"If it’s a bad meeting, it’ll end very quickly, and if it’s a good meeting, we’re going to end up getting peace in the pretty near future.
President Trump also said a second meeting, not yet confirmed, between him, Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky would be the more decisive.
He continued: "The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that’s going to be a meeting where they make a deal.
"I don’t want to use the word 'divvy' things up, but you know, to a certain extent, it’s not a bad term, OK?"