By Andrew Osborn MOSCOW (Reuters) -In a few short hours in Alaska, Vladimir Putin managed to convince Donald Trump that a Ukraine ceasefire was not the way to go, stave off U.S. sanctions, and spectacularly shatter years of Western attempts to isolate the Russian president.

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,

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.

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.

Russia would relinquish tiny pockets of occupied Ukraine and Kyiv would cede swathes of its eastern land which Moscow has been unable to capture, under peace proposals discussed by Russia's Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump at their Alaska summit,

"The rational world is behaving irrationally by giving him this welcome," she said. Putin's plane had been escorted into the airbase in Alaska by four American fighter jets and as he strolled down the red carpet,

Russian president pitches economic partnership with US during three-hour Trump meeting, blaming NATO expansion for Ukraine conflict amid ongoing sanctions.