LONDON (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday praised U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine, more than three years after Moscow launched its invasion, as the two leaders prepared for a pivotal U.S.–Russia summit Friday in Alaska.

Putin praised Trump’s “ energetic and sincere efforts” to stop the war in Ukraine, while trying to dilute the focus of Friday’s peace talks by showing interest in discussing other issues like trade and arms control,

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.