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

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.

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.

In a shift, Trump now aligns more closely with Putin than allies in Europe in calling for final talks before a ceasefire

The meeting between the U.S. president and the Russian leader didn’t appear to yield any breakthroughs.

It only makes sense that we’ve met here, because our countries though separated by the ocean are close neighbors,” Putin said in Anchorage.

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.

B-2 bomber and F-35s stage an impressive flyover watched by hundreds of thousands online as Trump and Putin meet in Anchorage.A U.S. Air Force B-2A Spirit

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will measure success at their summit in Alaska very differently, even as both leaders are already looking toward a second meeting.

Achieving a peace agreement is an even higher bar than the ceasefire that has eluded the Trump administration in recent months.