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

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

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.

In a shift, Trump now aligns more closely with Putin than allies in Europe in calling for final talks before a ceasefire

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.

Documents with sensitive details about the meeting between President Trump and Russian President Putin were left behind on a public hotel printer.

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.

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.