President Trump has largely held back from harsh criticism of Vladimir V. Putin personally, despite recent complaints about Russian intransigence in ending the war in Ukraine.

President Donald Trump has often bragged about his warm relationship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. But in the months leading up to the leaders’ first meeting in six years, Trump began asking Europeans and White House aides what’s changed about his counterpart.

The president has shifted closer to NATO on Ukraine in recent months, and the upcoming meeting with Putin will be a test of that.