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

Melania Trump wrote a personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin for President Donald Trump to hand-deliver during the Alaska summit. The two world leaders sat down together in Anchorage on Aug.

The high-stakes summit at the Anchorage Air Force base comes as the U.S. seeks a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Putin left the sit-down with no visible sign of the harsh measures Trump had vowed just hours earlier. Instead, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN the Russian president “agreed to allow security guarantees for Ukraine” and offered vague concessions on territorial “land swaps.”

Anchorage is set to host a summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. Trump announced the summit last week. The goal is to discuss a potential end to the war between Russia and Ukraine. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not attending the Friday summit.

Vladimir Putin set foot on U.S. soil for the first time in 10 years on Friday—but don’t try telling President Donald Trump that. In the days leading up to the historic summit between the two world leaders,

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.

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