Donald Trump returned to a political backlash in Washington over his handling of Vladimir Putin after failing to follow through on his threat of “severe consequences” if the Russian president refused to agree a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Trump flew back to the capital following a three-hour meeting in Alaska on Friday, Putin’s first with a US president since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, arguing that some progress had been made towards a settlement.
But the fighting continued on Ukraine’s frontline and, even in some sympathetic quarters, the US president was criticised for giving Putin red-carpet treatment without any obvious results.