From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.

President Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin are set to meet today in Anchorage, Alaska,

with Trump still pushing for peace, but sounding more skeptical all the time

that his Russian counterpart wants to stop the war that Russia had started

by invading Ukraine three years ago. Welcome, I'm Kyle Peterson with the Wall Street Journal.

We're joined today by my colleagues editorial board member Jillian Melcher in London and columnist

Kim Strassel. The Alaska Summit is about to begin as we tape this, President

Trump taking off on Air Force One around 8 a.m., accompanied by a coterie of U.S.

officials, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Special Envoy

Steve Whitkoff, John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, among others.

President Vladimir Putin is set to land at about 11 a.m. local time attending the summit along with AIDS,

including Sergei Lavrov, the longtime Russian foreign minister.

This will be Putin's first time in the United States since 2015 when he attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Trump and Putin this morning are reportedly scheduled for a meeting with interpreters, a working breakfast, and then potentially a joint news conference.

Here's part of what Trump said on Air Force One talking about the killing of

civilians, which is getting in the way of negotiations. They're trying to negotiate. He's trying to

set a stage. I mean, in his mind, that helps him make a better deal. It actually hurts him.

But in his mind, that helps him make a better deal if they can continue the killing.

Maybe it's a part of the world. Maybe it's just his fabric, his genes, his genetics. But he

thinks that makes him, gives him strength in negotiating. I think it hurts him, but I'll be talking

to him about it later. On Thursday, President Trump said this.

We're going to find out where everybody stands.

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