American officials quickly discovered a major snag in planning for the summit: summertime is peak tourist season in Alaska, and options both available and equipped to host the two world leaders were severely limited.

The US president will speak to Ukraine's leader in a call on Wednesday, two days before "one-to-one" talks with Putin.

Less than a week after Donald Trump suddenly announced that Alaska would be the venue for his summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, a mad scramble is underway to prepare both the site and the agenda for the most important superpower meeting in decades.