President Trump’s tirades against Ukraine and the start of peace talks between the U.S. and Russia have come as painful blows to America’s closest allies.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lauded U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday for saying that previous U.S. support of Ukraine's bid to join the NATO military alliance was a major cause of the war in Ukraine.

The meeting was the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine that Russian and American delegations are known to have met face-to-face.