Here is what we know about the meeting between the two leaders, taking place in Alaska - a former Russian territory which only became a US state in 1959. Why are Putin and Trump m

Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will hold a high-stakes meeting about the Ukraine war on Friday in Alaska, which the United States bought from Russia more than 150 years ago.

Unlike Putin’s military seizure of about a fifth of Ukraine, Russia’s 19th-century sale of Alaska to the US under Emperor Alexander II was a peaceful transaction. Still, it serves as a reminder that national borders are not set in stone, and land can be a currency for statecraft.