Trump and Putin were initially expected to meet behind closed doors,with interpreters the only other people in the room.

However the one-on-one became a three-on-three,with US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Trump’s top negotiator Steve Witkoff joining on the American side.

Joining Putin was Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov.

Trump’s stance on the war has swung wildly in recent months. One moment,the president is humiliating Zelensky in the Oval Office. The next,he’s calling out Putin’s ‘bulls**t’ and saying he’s ‘disgusted’ with him.

Trump and Putin are meeting in Alaska (Picture: Metro Graphics)

In comparison,Putin has remained fairly tight-lipped about his goals for the meeting.

‘The current American administration… is making,in my opinion,quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities,stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict,’ he said yesterday.

Zelensky is not best pleased about the ‘bilateral’ meeting excluding him,and has raised concerns that talks ‘will not achieve anything’ without Ukraine having a seat at the table.

‘We understand Russia’s intention to try to deceive America – we will not allow this,’ he said over the weekend.