Putin’s plane had been escorted into the airbase in Alaska by four American fighter jets and as he strolled down the red carpet, talking jovially with Trump, an American B-2 bomber flew overhead flanked by four more jets.
Ukrainians who had stayed up late to watch the spectacle were seeing the “legitimisation of a war criminal at the highest level”, said Oleksandr Kovalenko, a Ukrainian writer and political analyst.
“There was no need for this pomp at all,” Kovalenko said. “This is a meeting that should have been conducted in a much more restrained way – minimalistic, without this level of respect.”
After the greetings, Trump and Putin sat down in front of a gaggle of reporters at Elmendorf Air Force Base, under a banner that read “Pursuing Peace”. A question was shouted at Putin: “Will you you stop killing civilians?”
The Russian leader appeared to smirk, and gestured to his ear to suggest he couldn’t hear.
Along with the smiles, laughter, and general good will on show, the gesture struck a very sour note in Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands have been killed and wounded in Russia’s war of aggression.
“When I saw what happened I felt crushed,” said Serhii Orlyk, 50, from the eastern province of Donetsk, which has been largely seized by Russian forces and seen some of the most intense fighting of the war.
“I lost my home twice, in Sloviansk and in Donetsk. I lost relatives,” Orlyk said. “I understand that to agree on something, there must be protocol, you cannot just slap Putin in the face when he arrives. But it was a very unpleasant spectacle – especially his smirks.”