Sentiment toward Russia in Alaska has cooled since Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022. The Anchorage Assembly voted unanimously to suspend its three-decade-long sister city relationship with Magadan, Russia, and the Juneau Assembly sent its sister city of Vladivostok a letter expressing concern.

Whether the U.S.-Russia summit can lead to a deal to produce peace in Ukraine more than 3 1/2 years after Moscow’s invasion remains to be seen.

U.S. military base in Anchorage, Alaska, a White House official confirmed to USA TODAY. The face-to-face meeting, billed as a “listening exercise” by the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt,