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.

President Donald Trump’s high-profile meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin adjourned their brief summit Friday without announcing a breakthrough in negotiations to end Russia’s three-year-old invasion of Ukraine.

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.

After leaving Alaska, Trump says he would prefer to "go directly to a peace agreement" to end the war in Ukraine as he prepares to meet Zelensky on Monday.

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.

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, to discuss the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Trump and Putin “looked like buddies” during their initial greetings in Alaska Friday – but the dynamic had shifted by the end of their visit, according to a body language expert.

It only makes sense that we’ve met here, because our countries though separated by the ocean are close neighbors,” Putin said in Anchorage.

The two world leaders sat down together in Anchorage on Friday, Aug. 15, to discuss the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine

Trump will meet Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska on Friday as the U.S. leader hopes for a breakthrough in the three-and-a-half-year war, following previous negotiations involving his envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russian president's rejection of a U.S. ceasefire proposal.