WASHINGTON Trump warns of make-or-break with Putin

PRESSURE mounted ahead of a landmark summit in Alaska between the US and Russia, as Donald Trump warned that Vladimir Putin had only one chance but Moscow pressed ahead with major battlefield gains in Ukraine.

- 

Putin and Trump are to meet today at an air base in the far-northern US state, the first time the Russian leader has been permitted on Western soil since his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine which has killed tens of thousands of people.

With such high stakes, all sides were pushing hard in the hours before the meeting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has refused to surrender territory to Russia, spoke by telephone this week with Trump, as did European leaders who voiced confidence afterward that the US leader would seek a ceasefire rather than concessions by Kyiv.

Trump himself sent mixed messages, saying that he could quickly organize a three-way summit afterward with both Zelenskiy and Putin but also warning of his impatience with Putin.