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

Trump and Putin “looked like buddies” during their initial greetings in Alaska Friday – but the dynamic had shifted by the end of their visit, according to a body language expert.

The meeting between President Trump and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin is taking place in a region rich with significance for Moscow. Once Russian territory, Alaska was sold by Alexander II in 1867 for $7.

In the early hours of Saturday morning following a summit in Alaska between the leaders of Russia and the United States, senior politicians in Moscow were quick to trumpet the meeting as a win for Russia and its narrative of the war in Ukraine.

Trump will meet Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska on Friday as the U.S. leader hopes for a breakthrough in the three-and-a-half-year war, following previous negotiations involving his envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russian president's rejection of a U.S. ceasefire proposal.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, was not invited to the Trump-Putin summit in Anchorage, but 1,000 Ukrainian refugees in Alaska will be watching with trepidation.