No ceasefire, but Trump touts ‘productive’ meeting after historic summit with Putin in Alaska

President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin both spoke positively of their historic peace talk in Alaska Friday, but they did not reach the Ukraine ceasefire agreement Trump had sought.

In brief comments to the press after the summit, Putin touted that the “negotiations have been held in a constructive atmosphere of mutual respect.” He said Russia “is sincerely interested in putting an end” to the war in Ukraine, and spoke of having reached “agreements” with Trump but did not specify any details.

“I would like to hope that the agreement that we’ve reached together will help us bring closer” to ending the war, Putin said, “and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine.”

“I expect that today’s agreements will be the starting point, not only for the solution of the Ukrainian issue, but also will help us bring back business-like and pragmatic relations between Russia and the US,” he added.

The Russian leader spoke well of his relationship with Trump. “Today, when President Trump is saying that if he was the president” in 2022, “there would be no war, and I’m quite sure that it would indeed be so,” Putin said. “I can confirm that. 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 assume it better to the end of the conflict in Ukraine.”

Standing beside Putin, Trump spoke with similar positivity about their talk, but offered no more details than his Russian counterpart had. “I believe we had a very productive meeting,” Trump said. “There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them, I would say, a couple of big ones that we haven’t quite gotten there, but we’ve made some headway.” 

The two men clearly did not achieve any definitive peace deal, however. “So there’s no deal until there’s a deal,” Trump said.

Ahead of the summit, Trump indicated to reporters earlier on Friday that he intended to push hard for peace.

“I want to see a ceasefire, rapidly,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s going to be today, but I’m not going to be happy if it’s not today.”

“I’m in this to stop the killing,” he added.

The day before, Putin had praised Trump’s overtures for peace, crediting the US with “making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict,” according to Reuters.

After the summit, Trump indirectly appealed to NATO allies and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, noting: “It’s ultimately up to them.”

“We’re going to stop, really, five, six, seven thousand – thousands of people a week from being killed, and President Putin wants to see that as much as I do,” Trump added.

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