President Donald Trump has issued a stark warning to Vladimir Putin ahead of their crucial Alaska talks.

The US president warned Mr Putin that "there will be very severe consequences" for Russia if he does not agree to bring the war to an end after Friday's meeting.

The move comes after European leaders said that Mr Trump had agreed to prioritise an immediate ceasefire at the beginning of the negotiations.

The US president warned Mr Putin that 'there will be very severe consequences' for Russia if he does not agree to bring the war to an end

In a boost to Kyiv, Mr Trump teased that Friday's meeting is "setting the table" for a second round of talks where Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, will be present.

It would be only the second time that the Russian and Ukrainian leaders have met face-to-face, with the first meeting coming when Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin held talks in December 2019 in Paris to discuss fighting in the Donbas region.

However, Mr Trump warned that if he "doesn't get the answers" he needs during Friday's talks in Alaska, then "we're not going to have a second meeting".

It is believed that a second meeting involving Mr Zelensky would happen in a neutral country in Europe.

Mr Trump teased that Friday's meeting is 'setting the table' for a second round of talks where Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, will be at the table

It is believed that the American president could offer Mr Putin access to rare earth minerals in a bid to entice the Russian leader to end the war which has ravaged Ukraine since February 2022.

Moscow may be given access to natural resources in Alaska, as well as rare earth materials in the areas of Ukraine that they currently occupy, according to the Telegraph.

In a speech at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire on Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance said that Mr Trump has vowed to "bring peace" to the European continent.

Mr Vance has spent the past week with Foreign Secretary David Lammy at Chevening House in Kent.

Mr Vance has spent the past week with Foreign Secretary David Lammy at Chevening House in Kent

The Vice President said that he and Mr Lammy had "worked on one of our most important shared security goals in Europe, which is the end of the war between Russia and Ukraine".

Mr Vance added: "The President of the United States came in six months ago, and I just talked to him right before I came on the stage, and he said very simply that we are going to make it our mission as an administration to bring peace to Europe once again."

It comes after Mr Trump held a virtual meeting with European leaders on Wednesday, which the US president said he "would rate a 10".

Mr Zelensky, who dialled in to the meeting from Berlin after meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, said that "Trump supported us today" and described the talks as "constructive and good".

However, Mr Zelensky warned that the Russian president is "bluffing" in saying that he wants to bring the war to an end.

The Ukrainian president also said that sanctions on Moscow "do not matter to him and are ineffective".

Sir Keir Starmer also dialled in to Wednesday's digital summit, and said that the "coalition of the willing" is prepared to send a "reassurance force" in a peacekeeping effort once the war comes to an end.

Mr Starmer said: "For three-and-a-bit years this conflict has been going on and we haven't got anywhere near the prospect of actually a viable solution, a viable way of bringing it to a ceasefire - and now we do have that chance because of the work that the president has put in."