US President Donald Trump estimated Thursday that there was a one in four chance of his summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday ending in failure.
"This meeting sets up the second meeting, but there is a 25 percent chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting," Trump told Fox News Radio.
Trump said any deal on ending Russia's invasion of Ukraine would come at a second, three-way meeting involving Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, rather than at Friday's Alaska summit 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. And I don't want to use the word 'divvy' things up. But you know, to a certain extent, it's not a bad term, okay?" Trump told Fox News Radio.
The Kremlin earlier today said that Putin and Trump will hold "one-on-one" talks aimed at settling the Ukraine conflict when they meet for their landmark summit in Alaska on Friday.
The meeting, set to take place at a US air base outside of Anchorage, marks Putin's first trip to a Western country since his February 2022 assault on Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who met UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London on Thursday, is not scheduled to take part.
After nearly three-and-a-half years of fighting, which has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, Trump on Wednesday urged Putin to accept a peace deal or face "very severe consequences".
"This conversation will take place in a one-on-one format, naturally with the participation of interpreters," Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
"This will be followed by negotiations between the delegations, which will continue over a working breakfast," Ushakov added.
He said it was "probably obvious to everyone that the central topic will be the resolution of the Ukraine crisis" although broader issues around peace and security would also be discussed.
Putin and Trump will give a joint press conference following their meeting, during which they will "summarise the results of the negotiations", Ushakov said.
Putin on Thursday welcomed US efforts to end the Ukraine conflict.
"The US administration... in my view is making quite energetic and sincere efforts to end the fighting," he told a meeting of top officials.
He also suggested that following talks with the US could result in an agreement on nuclear arms control.
On the eve of the summit, Ukraine fired dozens of drones at Russia, wounding several people and sparking fires at an oil refinery in the southern city of Volgograd.
Russia meanwhile said its troops had captured two new settlements in eastern Ukraine, where it has been advancing for months.
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