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.

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

In a series of interviews on Sunday, Rubio said progress was made at the Alaska meeting between Trump and Putin, but a ceasefire has yet to be agreed upon. “We made progress in the sense that we identified potential areas of agreement,