The high-stakes summit on Friday between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin did not result in a breakthrough, even as Trump described it as “productive,” while Putin proposed another meeting in Moscow.
The White House had played down the talks — initially seen an attempt to secure a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine — with spokesperson Karoline Leavitt calling the summit, “a listening exercise for the president.”
Following the Friday meeting Trump said, “There’s no deal until there’s a deal.”
Ukraine was not part of the discussions, stoking concerns that a potential deal could have compromised the country’s sovereignty. “Ukraine is ready to work as productively as possible to bring the war to an end, and we count on a strong position from America … A meeting of leaders is needed – at the very least, Ukraine, America, and the Russian side,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X prior to the summit.
This was Putin’s first visit to the U.S. in about a decade, with the Russian president stressing that it was a “hard time” for bilateral relations. The meeting was held in Alaska, which was once Russian territory.
