- Trump and Putin met in Alaska for three hours but reached no concrete deal, with Trump stating “there’s no deal until there’s a deal”
- Trump indicated a trilateral meeting between himself, Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky would be arranged to continue negotiations
Despite high expectations, negotiations between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin ended without an agreement on Ukraine, lowering prospects for a settlement in the long-running conflict.
Both leaders met in Alaska on Friday, their first face-to-face meeting since Helsinki in July 2018.
Prior to the meeting, Trump predicted “very severe consequences” for Russia if Putin did not agree to halt the conflict in Ukraine.
However, when the presidents greeted each other on the tarmac, Ukraine received signals about impending Russian drones and planes.
Following the summit, Trump’s tone softened.
In a press conference with Putin following the three-hour meeting, Trump stated that they had achieved progress on unnamed issues but provided no details.
“We had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to,” Trump said.
“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. We didn’t get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there.”
“So there is no deal until there is a deal,” Trump added, saying that he will now call up NATO as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and others to brief them on the meeting.
On his part, Putin said his meeting with Trump was “long overdue”.
He expressed hope that the agreement that “we’ve reached together will help us bring close 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,” he added.
“They will not make any attempts to use some backroom dealings to conduct provocations to torpedo the nascent progress.”
In a separate interview, Trump hinted at a forthcoming trilateral meeting between, Putin, Zelensky, and himself, a goal he enthused before the summit.
Zelenksy on Saturday said Trump briefed him about the meeting with Putin and expressed readiness to work with maximum effort to achieve peace.
The Ukrainian leader said he would meet with Trump on Monday in Washington.