The US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin ended their high-level meeting in Alaska on Friday, without reaching any deal to end the war in Ukraine. The three-hour closed-door summit was held in Anchorage, Alaska on Friday during Putin’s first-ever visit to the US soil in over a decade.
Addressing a joint press conference alongside Putin in Alaska, Trump acknowledged that there was no deal although they “made some great progress today” to end the 3 1/2-year-old war.
“We had an extremely productive meeting and many points were agreed to. There are just a very few that are left. Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant but we have a very good chance of getting there,” Trump said. “There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” Trump went on saying. Furthermore, he pointed to his “fantastic relationship” with President Putin.
Praising Trump’s efforts to end hostilities in Ukraine and reiterating his US colleague’s point that there would be no war had Trump been elected four years ago, Vladimir Putin suggested that the next meeting be held in Moscow. "We talked about almost all areas of interaction, but first of all, of course, we talked about a possible resolution of the Ukrainian crisis on a fair basis. And of course, we had the opportunity, which we did, to talk about the genesis, about the causes of this crisis. It is the elimination of these root causes that should be the basis for settlement," the Russian president noted.
The hastily-organized meeting that excluded Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine that is party to the conflict, raised concerns in Kyiv and among Ukraine’s western allies. Many Ukrainian netizens expressed their indignation over the warmest welcome Trump offered to Putin, turning him from a pariah of the West to a US partner. Putin was welcomed on a red carpet in tarmac by Trump and then accepted a lift in Trump’s limousine to drive to the Joint Base Elmedorf-Richardson base where the meeting would be placed instead of driving his own Moscow-plated presidential car. Prior to the summit, Kremlin had praised Trump’s “energetic” and “sincere” efforts to the hostilities in Ukraine.
The summit in Alaska can be considered a victory for the Kremlin and President Putin who had been isolated by the West and whose international travels had been limited only to friendly countries since the start of Russia’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The Russian media also celebrated Alaska summit and Kremlin’s diplomatic triumph.
Peace deal vs. ceasefire
After returning from Alaska, Trump unexpectedly shifted his stance on ceasefire agreement, stating that it was a final peace, not a truce, that was needed. Writing on social media platform Truth Social on Friday evening, hours after the meeting with Putin, Trump stated that the best way to end the war is through a "direct peace", rather than a temporary ceasefire. He announced that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy would be visiting to Washington on Monday for talks and “if all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin.”
Speaking after his visit to Alaska, Vladimir Putin described the summit in Alaska as a “starting point for resolution” and warned Kyiv not to “sabotage” the talks. He said the visit to Alaska was “timely and useful”, adding that the talks covered “almost all areas of bilateral cooperation,” according to Kremlin’s transcript of the opening statement.
