After leaving Alaska, Trump says he would prefer to "go directly to a peace agreement" to end the war in Ukraine as he prepares to meet Zelensky on Monday.

Melania Trump took the unique step of crafting a letter that calls for peace in Ukraine, having her husband President Donald Trump hand-deliver it to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their Friday meeting in Alaska.

Talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin produced enough movement to justify a meeting with Ukrainian and European leaders, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS on Sunday.

President Trump said that he and Russia's Vladimir Putin made progress in talks to end the war in Ukraine, but the two leaders did not announce any steps toward reaching a ceasefire.

Speaking after Friday’s summit, President Putin again implied that the war is all about Russia’s diminished status since the fall of the Soviet Union.

FROM THE moment he stepped off his plane onto the red-carpeted tarmac, the summit in Alaska was a triumph for Vladimir Putin. He was greeted with applause from his host, Donald Trump. The two men may have had nothing to announce after hours of talks—the first meeting between a Russian and American president since the invasion of Ukraine—but the encounter at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Anchorage transformed Mr Putin from a pariah of the West into an honoured guest on American soil.

Putin strolled down a red carpet on the tarmac at Elmendorf Air Force Base, met with Trump’s applause and a guard of honour. As they posed for pictures, F-22 fighters and a B-2 bomber flew overhead. A Russian vehicle waited on the tarmac for Putin,

Ukrainians in Kyiv have been shocked by the U.S. welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin with a red carpet in Alaska