At what was billed as an “historic” presidential summit, hastily put together in Alaska on Friday afternoon, the optics were as clear and overshadowing as the vast Chugach mountains glistening over Anchorage in the summer sun.

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

President Trump is meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska today, a momentous summit on American soil with a leader isolated by the West over his invasion of Ukraine. Trump, who pledged a quick end to the war in Ukraine during his 2024 campaign,