He even envisioned a grand summit to announce a peace deal.But Putin rejected repeated American calls to stop his attacks. And Trump, in recent months, began to take that personally, complaining privately to advisers—and then eventually in public—that Putin would tell him one thing in their phone calls (that he was committed to peace) and then act entirely differently afterward (by bombing Ukraine).

Europeans have also warned against exchanges of territory, an idea floated by Trump last week, fearing it would amount to Ukraine ceding land to an aggressor. Europeans have argued instead that the current front line should be the starting point of ceasefire talks.

Location matters, former real estate mogul US President Donald Trump said. Moments later he announced Alaska, a place sold by Russia to the United States 158 years ago for $7.2 million, would be where Russian President Vladimir Putin tries to sell his land deal of the century,