WASHINGTON/MOSCOW: U.S. President Donald Trump said Ukraine should agree a deal to end the war with Russia, after holding a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin that yielded no agreement on a ceasefire.
At a brief appearance before the media after nearly three hours of talks in Alaska on Friday, Trump and Putin said they had made progress on unspecified issues. But they offered no details and took no questions, with the normally loquacious Trump ignoring shouted questions from reporters.
“We’ve made some headway,” Trump said, standing in front of a backdrop that read, “Pursuing Peace.”
“There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Ukraine was ready for constructive cooperation after a conversation with Trump following the summit. He said he would travel to Washington on Monday.
Putin however signaled no movement in Russia’s long-held position on Ukraine, saying it was necessary to eliminate the “root causes” of the crisis and address Moscow’s “legitimate concerns”.
He said he agreed with Trump that Ukraine’s security must be “ensured”.
Trump says Putin summit a prelude to real Ukraine dealmaking
“We are ready to work on this. I would like to hope that the understanding we have reached will allow us to get closer to that goal and open the way to peace in Ukraine,” Putin said.
“We expect that Kyiv and the European capitals will perceive all of this in a constructive manner and will not create any obstacles. That they will not attempt to disrupt the emerging progress through provocation or behind-the-scenes intrigue.”
Neither leader specified any concrete move towards a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine, a goal that Trump had set ahead of Friday’s summit.
The war – the deadliest in Europe for 80 years – has killed or injured well over a million people from both sides, including thousands of mostly Ukrainian civilians, according to analysts.
Trump signaled that he discussed potential land swaps and security guarantees for Ukraine with Putin, telling Fox News’ Sean Hannity: “I think those are points that we negotiated, and those are points that we largely have agreed on.”
“I think we’re pretty close to a deal,” he said, adding: “Ukraine has to agree to it. Maybe they’ll say no.”
Putin ‘won this round’
When asked by Hannity what he would advise Zelenskiy, Trump said: “Gotta make a deal.”
“Look, Russia is a very big power, and they’re not. They’re great soldiers,” Trump added.
Trump warns of make-or-break chance with Putin as pressure mounts
Trump’s talk of land swaps before the summit had prompted fears in Kyiv and Europe that he and Putin might reach an agreement between themselves and try to impose it on Ukraine, forcing Kyiv to accept deeply unfavorable terms.
Those fears apparently did not materialize. But simply sitting down face-to-face with the U.S. president represented a victory for Putin, who had been ostracized by Western leaders since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and just a week earlier had been facing a threat of new sanctions from Trump.
“Putin is a determined opponent, and, yes, he basically won this round because he got something for nothing. Still, Trump did not sell out Ukraine,” Cold War historian Sergey Radchenko posted on X.
Trump told Fox News that a meeting would now be set up between Putin and Ukraine’s Zelenskiy, which he might also attend. He gave no further details on who was organizing the meeting or when it might be.
Putin made no mention of meeting Zelenskiy when speaking to reporters earlier. Russian state news agency TASS quoted Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov as saying the possibility of a three-way summit including Zelenskiy had not been discussed.
Trump will seek to squeeze Ukraine ceasefire deal out of Putin at Alaska summit
After Trump landed in Washington on Saturday, the White House said the president was on the phone with NATO leaders following a lengthy call with Zelenskiy.
“We must continue to put pressure on Russia, and even increase it, to give the clear signal to Russia that it must pay the price (for its invasion of Ukraine),” Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told reporters in Oslo.
In another reaction from a NATO country, Czech Defence Minister Jana Cernochova said: “The Trump-Putin talks in Alaska did not bring significant progress toward ending the war in Ukraine, but they confirmed that Putin is not seeking peace, but rather an opportunity to weaken Western unity and spread his propaganda.”
‘Next time in Moscow’
Both Russia and Ukraine carried out overnight air attacks, a daily occurrence in the war that Russia launched in February 2022 with its full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
Russia launched 85 attack drones and a ballistic missile targeting Ukraine’s territory, Ukraine’s Air Force said on Saturday. It said its air defense units destroyed 61 of them.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said 139 clashes had taken place on the front line over the past day. Russia said its air defenses intercepted and destroyed 29 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Trump told Fox that he would hold off on imposing tariffs on China for buying Russian oil after making progress with Putin. He did not mention India, another major buyer of Russian crude, which has been slapped with a total 50% tariff on U.S. imports that includes a 25% penalty for the imports from Russia.
“Because of what happened today, I think I don’t have to think about that now,” Trump said of Chinese tariffs. “I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don’t have to think about that right now.”
Trump has threatened sanctions on Moscow as well but has thus far not followed through, even after Putin ignored a Trump-imposed ceasefire deadline earlier this month.
The anticlimactic end to the closely watched summit was in stark contrast to the pomp and circumstance with which it began. When Putin arrived at an Air Force base in Alaska, a red carpet awaited him, where Trump greeted the Russian president warmly as U.S. military aircraft flew overhead.
Putin is wanted by the International Criminal Court, accused of the war crime of deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. Russia denies the allegations, and the Kremlin has dismissed the ICC warrant as null and void. Russia and the United States are not members of the court.
Trump ended his remarks on Friday by telling Putin, “I’d like to thank you very much, and we’ll speak to you very soon and probably see you again very soon.”
“Next time in Moscow,” a smiling Putin responded in English. Trump said he might “get a little heat on that one” but that he could “possibly see it happening.”
Zelenskiy said ahead of Friday’s summit that the meeting should open the way for a “just peace” and three-way talks that included him, but added that Russia was continuing to wage war.
“It’s time to end the war, and the necessary steps must be taken by Russia. We are counting on America,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram.
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