Donald Trump insisted Vladimir Putin 'is not going to mess around with me' on the eve of their crunch summit.
The eyes of the world will be on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, where the two men are due meet at 8.30pm UK time on Friday.
It will be the first time any major Western leader, aside from Putin's friend Viktor Orban, has met with the dictator since his illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
From the Oval Office on Thursday night, the US President said he would be able to know if the meeting is likely to prove productive in the first few minutes.
'If it's a bad meeting it will end very quickly,' he said. 'And if it's a good meeting we're going to end up getting peace very quickly.'
