President Donald Trump walked into a summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin pressing for a ceasefire deal and threatening “severe consequences” and tough new sanctions if the Kremlin leader failed to agree to halt the fighting in Ukraine.

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.

Russian President Vladimir Putin got everything he could have hoped for in Alaska. President Donald Trump got very little — judging by his own pre-summit metrics.

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

For Russia, the results of the Alaska summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin marked a turning point in relations with the United States, underlined by Trump subsequently abandoning demands for a halt in fighting in Ukraine.

The last time President Donald Trump shared a room with Vladimir Putin, their relationship — perhaps the most scrutinized association of any two people in the entire world — was enjoying an upswing.

President Donald Trump warned that "severe consequences" lie ahead for Russia if Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn't agree to stop the Ukraine war after they meet for a high-stakes summit in Alaska on Friday.

U.S. President Donald Trump's wife, Melania Trump, raised the plight of children in Ukraine and Russia in a personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, two White House officials said on Friday.