After Russia seized 46,000 square miles of Ukraine in the first five weeks of the war, Ukraine retook roughly 20,000 of those, and Russia has since struggled to make any territorial gains, currently occupying less than 28,000 square miles, or 12% of Ukraine, not including Crimea.

The talks on Friday in Alaska pull the Russian leader out of diplomatic isolation from the West, and Ukrainian and European leaders fear it gives him an opening to sway the American president.