President Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin held a rare meeting Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska.

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

Russian President Vladimir Putin “immediately” opened and read a letter from First Lady Melania Trump at an Alaska summit focused on the war in Ukraine, according to a new report.

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.

Russian President Putin speeches during their joint press conference with U.S. Persident Donald Trump after their meeing on war in Ukraine at U.S. Air Base In Alaska on August 15, 2025, in Anchorage,

Pickup trucks, salmon fishing and grizzly bear displays give way to FBI agents and $1,000 hotel rooms as Anchorage’s biggest political moment unfolds. “All eyes” on the state.

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

As the leaders of the United States and Russia met on Anchorage’s Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on Friday, supporters of Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion staged multiple demonstrations in Alaska to protest the meeting and what they predicted would be capitulation to Russian goals.

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.

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.

Here are 12 things to know about the historic, and controversial, summit. Anchorage’s military base: Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. Trump landed at JBER at 10:20 a.m. Friday and Putin arrived shortly before 11 a.m. They’re scheduled to hold a news conference at the end of their summit and then fly out of Anchorage.

Donald Trump held a lengthy phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and subsequently spoke to NATO leaders after the U.S. president's Friday summit in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin,