The US and Russian presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are to meet at a US air base in Alaska on Friday for talks on the Ukraine war.

Expectations are high for the first summit between sitting US and Russian presidents in more than four years, but Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart in their visions on how to end the conflict.

It will be Putin's first trip to a Western country since launching his invasion in February 2022, as well as his first US visit in 10 years.

Here is a look at what each side hopes to achieve from the talks:

For Putin, who has faced years of isolation from the West since the invasion, the summit is an opportunity to press Russia's hardline demands for ending the conflict.

In a draft peace plan published in June, Russia called on Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the Kherson, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions that Moscow claimed to annex in 2022. Ukraine has rejected the idea.

Russia has also called on Ukraine to halt its military mobilisation, abandon its NATO ambitions, and for Western countries to immediately stop weapon supplies -- something critics say amounts to........

© International Business Times