President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia met Friday in Anchorage, Alaska, for the first face-to-face meeting between American and Russian leaders since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022.

It was a welcome tailored for a close friend, not a war criminal, and it looked to the Ukrainians like their nightmare.

One key party who will not be in attendance Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump said Thursday he hopes the summit will lead to a second meeting that would include Zelenskyy.

Achieving a peace agreement is an even higher bar than the ceasefire that has eluded the Trump administration in recent months.

Papers bearing U.S. State Department markings and detailing President Donald Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin were discovered in the business center of an Anchorage hotel, raising new questions about the handling of sensitive government information.

The net effect of the Alaska summit was to give President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia a free pass to continue his war against his neighbor indefinitely without further penalty, pending talks on a broader peace deal.

U.S. President Donald Trump's wife, Melania Trump, raised the plight of children in Ukraine and Russia in a personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, two White House officials said on Friday.

Trump has visited Alaska several times as president, pushed for expanded oil, gas and mining permits there, and even got funding for new polar icebreakers, a popular stance in a state he won with 54% of the vote in 2024.

US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin have met at a military base in Anchorage, Alaska. Source: a live broadcast by The Independent Details: The planes carrying Trump and Putin landed at the military base in Anchorage on 15 August.