Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday, the latest development in the months-long effort by Trump to end the Ukraine war.

The hastily arranged meeting between Putin and Trump will be the first U.S.-Russia summit since former President Joe Biden met with the Kremlin leader in 2021. There’s no guarantee a Trump-Putin meeting would lead to the end of the fighting, however, since Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on their conditions for peace.

"The lesson that I've learned in observing Trump at work is it's a mistake to let yourself be governed either by your fears or your hopes,” said Eliot Cohen, the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. “You just have to look at the facts as they emerge.”

And the basic facts of the meeting, Cohen says, "are not looking good."

"It's not a good look that Zelensky and the Europeans are not part of it. It's not good that we've invited him to the United States," said Cohen. "That's a gesture of respect which he doesn't deserve."

Trump has said he wants to see whether Putin is serious about ending the war, now in its fourth year.

Both countries confirmed a meeting between only Putin and Trump, even though there were initial suggestions that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy might be part of it.

European Union also have been sidelined from the meeting, and they appealed to Trump on Tuesday to protect their interests.