Just in case anyone needed reminding, Donald Trump spelled it out in a social media post that simply read: "High stakes!!!"
Hours later, he welcomed President Vladimir Putin to a military base in Alaska.
The presidents' respective planes flew into the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage just before 11am on Friday, local time (5am Saturday, AEST).
Mr Trump greeted Mr Putin with a handshake on a red carpet on the tarmac.
They then both stepped inside Mr Trump's presidential limousine to be driven to the meeting venue together.
Mr Trump's earlier social media post had summed up what everyone was thinking.
Earlier, while en route to Alaska, he spoke to reporters and said he wanted "to see a ceasefire rapidly".
"I don't know if it's going to be today, but I'm not going to be happy if it's not today. Everyone said it can't be today, but I'm just saying I want the killing to stop."
The talks are the first in-person between the leaders of the respective countries since 2021, when former president Joe Biden met Mr Putin in Geneva.
Eight months later, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
It's not clear what will come of the meeting, which was organised in less than two weeks.
The White House has described it as "a listening exercise", and Mr Trump on Thursday said they had a "25 per cent" chance of failing. He said he expected a second meeting to happen shortly after the first.
Multiple European leaders, after an all-in phone call during the week with the US president, said they expected Mr Trump would try to broker a ceasefire in Alaska.
Mr Putin, for his part, earlier in the week praised Mr Trump's "energetic" efforts to stop the war in Ukraine.
But there are signs it may be difficult.
Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who will also take part in the talks, turned up in Anchorage this week wearing a USSR sweatshirt.
His clothing choice, when considered in the context of Russia's ongoing invasion of the former Soviet state Ukraine, has been interpreted by some as inflammatory.
Mr Trump, who's been both critical and glowing of Mr Putin this year, described the Russian leader as "a smart guy" on Friday.
"He's been doing it for a long time but so have I," he said.
"We get along. There's a good respect level on both sides."
Mr Putin, 72, has towered over Russia's politics since the late 90s, and runs what has been described as a "power vertical" in the country, which means everyone, ultimately, answers to him.
The Kremlin delegation also includes Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and the head of the country's sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, among several other business leaders.
Ahead of the summit, there had also been reports of potential cooperation between the US and Russia on multiple resource deals.
"But they're not doing business until we get the war settled," Mr Trump said on Friday.
Hundreds of pro-Ukrainian protesters gathered in Anchorage before Mr Putin's arrival.
Among their chants were demands that Russia return the estimated 20,000 children that it has taken from the war zone since its invasion.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who wasn't invited to Alaska, will monitor developments from France, with his counterpart there, Emmanuel Macron.
On Friday morning, Mr Zelenskyy posted on the encrypted messaging service, Telegram: "It's time to end the war, and the necessary steps must be taken by Russia. We are counting on America."
That could prove tricky. Russia and Ukraine's stated list of demands to secure a ceasefire is still vastly different.
For instance, Ukraine has demanded it be able to join the NATO alliance — something Mr Putin has said is a deal-breaker.
Mr Trump has also suggested the two countries could engage in "land swaps", but both have ruled that out so far, too.
