ANCHORAGE — President Donald Trump called his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska “extremely productive,” but offered little in the way of details about a potential “agreement” over the war in Ukraine, after a nearly three-hour meeting between the world leaders.
The pair spoke glowingly of each other in brief remarks after the meeting, but left a highly anticipated press conference without taking a single question from the gathered press — a move that shocked the dozens of reporters in the room who expected Trump to engage in his usual press volley. Reporters traveling with the president were quickly wrangled out of the room.
In front of a backdrop with the words “pursuing peace,” Putin spoke first, alluding to an “agreement” the pair reached together on Ukraine and warning Europe not to impede the path to peace.
“I would like to hope that the agreement that we’ve reached together will help us bring closer that goal and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine. We expect that Kyiv and European capitals will perceive that constructively and that they won’t throw a wrench in the works,” the Russian president said.
For his part, Trump said that while certain things were agreed upon between the two camps, a deal hasn’t been reached and will not be reached before Zelenskyy and NATO allies are consulted. He indicated that one major point of contention, “the most significant,” had yet to be resolved, but didn’t say what that was.
“There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them, I would say,” Trump told reporters. “A couple of big ones that we haven’t quite gotten there, but we’ve made some headway.”
Still, he added, “there’s no deal until there’s a deal.”
Friday’s meetings seemed to fall short of Trump’s stated goal of a ceasefire — he told reporters earlier on Friday that “I’m not going to be happy” if one was not reached.
Following the summit, Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity he does not “have to think about” any severe consequences — as he had threatened earlier in the week — for Russia because the meeting went so well.
In terms of next steps, the president said he would be in touch with European allies as well as Zelenskyy — and he sounded hopeful that the pair would meet again. Trump later told Hannity that he would attend a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy if they wanted him there, but it was really up to Zelenskyy to “get it done” in reference to a cease-fire deal.
“We look forward to dealing — we’re going to try and get this over with. We really made some great progress today. I’ve always had a fantastic relationship with President Putin, with Vladimir,” he said.
Putin likewise praised his working relationship with Trump, and joined him in blaming the previous administration for the war.
“Today, when President Trump was saying that if he was the president back then, there will be no war — I’m quite sure that it would indeed be so. I can confirm that,” Putin said. “I think that overall, me and President Trump have built a very good business-like and trustworthy contact, and have every reason to believe that moving down this path, we can come and suit it better to the end of the conflict in Ukraine.”
The bilateral meeting was the first time Trump and Putin had met since 2019, and it was the first in-person meeting between heads of state of the two nations since Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago. While they were initially planning to meet one-on-one, it turned into a three-on-three summit, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff, two of Trump’s closest foreign policy aides, joining from the U.S. side.
The summit was made for TV. Before the meeting, Trump and Putin walked down red carpets to meet, then stood on a platform with “Alaska 2025” spelled out in front of it and F-35 fighter jets arranged behind them.
Trump looked up as more military jets, a B-2 stealth bomber flanked by F-22 fighters, flew overhead. And after a brief moment standing on the platform, Trump motioned for Putin to get into the U.S. presidential limo before driving to the meeting without translators — an extremely unusual scenario, especially after Trump’s own officials said they would not meet alone. The pair could be seen talking, with Putin laughing, through the window. An official photo released from the meeting itself showed Trump smiling from ear to ear.
It was the perfect photo-op for Putin, who has toiled away in isolation since his invasion of Ukraine, cut off from warm relationships with the power-players in the Western Hemisphere — until Friday.
Prior to his election, Trump expressed confidence that he could bring the conflict to a swift and smooth conclusion. But the task has proven to be more difficult: Even as the two leaders prepared to meet, the White House lowered expectations, describing the meeting as more for listening and table setting than negotiating a deal.
“He’s a realist,” a White House official told NOTUS before the trip. “And I don’t think there are any pretenses here.”
The president was hoping to lay the groundwork for future negotiations that include Ukraine. “I want to see a ceasefire rapidly,” Trump told Fox News earlier Friday when asked what it would take for the meeting to be a success. “I don’t know if it’s going to be today, but I’m not going to be happy if it’s not today.”
But despite the administration’s low expectations, the stakes are high, especially for Ukraine. Russia occupies nearly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, according to some sources.
As the two leaders met, the violence continued. Ukrainian forces reportedly struck an oil refinery in Russia and a cargo ship that was moving military supplies from Iran to Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post to X that Russia was continuing its strikes in Ukraine.
“On the day of negotiations, the Russians are killing as well. And that speaks volumes. Recently, weʼve discussed with the U.S. and Europeans what can truly work. Everyone needs a just end to the war,” Zelenskyy said in the post.