In a few short hours in Alaska, Vladimir Putin managed to convince Donald Trump that a Ukraine ceasefire was not the way to go, stave off U.S. sanctions, and spectacularly shatter years of Western attempts to isolate the Russian president.

US President Donald Trump has left Alaska without a deal to end the war in Ukraine, following a high-stakes meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. "There's no deal until there's a deal," Trump told the world's media following the meeting,

The traditionally Russian-speaking area is at the heart of what the Russian president calls the “root causes” of the war, and taking it over is near the top of his list of territorial and political demands.