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.

(Reuters) -In the early hours of Saturday morning following a summit in Alaska between the leaders of Russia and the United States, senior politicians in Moscow were quick to trumpet the meeting as a win for Russia and its narrative of the war in Ukraine.

The act of meeting and the nature of the interaction were such that the summit did considerable damage to the U.S. and broader western position on Ukraine.

Democrat Senator said Alaska summit was ‘great day’ for Russia: Putin was ‘absolved of his crimes in front of the world’ - Putin came to America for a ‘photo opp’ and legitimization, and received both from Trump,

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held calls on Saturday with his Turkish and Hungarian counterparts, the Russian foreign ministry said, hours after a summit between the U.S. and Russian presidents yielded no deal on ending the war in Ukraine.

Russia lost a war in Crimea in the 1850s. To pay off war debts, Russia sold Alaska to the U.S. Now, Presidents Trump and Putin will meet Friday in Alaska to discuss another war involving Crimea.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that in two weeks he should know whether progress is possible in his bid to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine and he again raised the prospect of imposing sanctions on Moscow.

Despite Russia being banned from FIFA competitions, Trump said he thinks Putin will attend the 2026 World Cup.