Several hundred people gathered at a pro-Ukrainian rally in Anchorage, Alaska, where US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin are meeting today.

The high-stakes summit — the first face-to-face meeting between a US president and Putin since the latter launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 — aims to lay the groundwork for a ceasefire.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not invited to the talks, which will begin at around 11 a.m. local time (10 p.m. Bulgarian time) at the joint Elmendorf-Richardson base.

Protesters began gathering early in the morning before Putin's arrival in Anchorage, chanting slogans in support of Kyiv and demanding that Russia return 20,000 Ukrainian children abducted from the war zone.

The protesters also expressed outrage that Trump had invited Putin to a meeting on US territory in Alaska, which was Russian until 1867, when it was sold to the US, Politico reports.

"Ukraine and Alaska – never again Russia," wrote Ostap Yarish, media advisor to the Together for Ukraine Foundation, in a post on X, accompanied by footage of the protest.

Local organizers of the rally said that "Alaska stands against tyranny" and called on their supporters to "gather in Anchorage, Alaska, to protest against an international war criminal walking around here."

"The decision to welcome Putin, a war criminal, on Alaskan soil is a betrayal of our history and the moral clarity that the suffering of Ukraine and other occupied peoples demands," the non-governmental organization Native Movement said, calling on Trump not to make a deal with Putin.

Trump said he plans to organize a trilateral meeting with the Ukrainian president and Putin soon after the Alaska meeting.

The US president said he has "three ideas" for venues — and "the easiest" would be to stay in Alaska.

Ukraine and its European allies expressed cautious optimism about the summit after Trump stepped up his criticism of Putin for his role in continuing the war and floated the idea of US security guarantees to facilitate a ceasefire, something he had previously rejected.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed this position at a press conference:

"To achieve peace, I think we all recognize that there will have to be talks about security guarantees."

Although Trump initially floated the idea of Ukraine "trading land for peace," he later promised Ukrainian and European leaders that he would not discuss the issue with Putin without Zelensky.

The White House tried to calm expectations for a successful peace agreement ahead of the summit, with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre describing the meeting as a "listening exercise."

However, Trump said he expected Putin to take the meeting seriously, threatening "very severe consequences" for Moscow if the Russian leader did not agree to take steps to end the war.

Leavitt clarified that Trump prefers diplomacy over imposing new sanctions on Russia, although "all options are on the table."

Russia does not expect any documents to be signed after the meeting in Alaska, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian media. | BGNES