Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin ended nearly three hours of high-stakes talks in Alaska without any sign of a Ukraine ceasefire deal – raising questions over the trajectory of the war and the fate of European security.
“We didn’t get there,” a downbeat US president said as he told reporters that the two leaders had not reached an agreement but that the meeting had been “very productive”.
“We've made some headway,” he added. “So there's no deal until there's a deal. I will call up Nato in a little while. I will call up the various people that I think are appropriate. And I'll, of course, call up President Zelensky and tell him about today's meeting.”
He added: “We had an extremely productive meeting and many points were agreed to. 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.”
Neither Putin nor Mr Trump used the word “ceasefire” in the short statements they made to the assembled media, before they shook hands and left the stage without taking questions.
There was no sign of what the major sticking point could have been although Putin said that Mr Trump had insisted on highlighting the importance of Ukraine’s security.
Putin said: “We're convinced that in order to make the settlement lasting and long term, we need to eliminate all the primary roots, the primary causes of that conflict. And we've said it multiple times, to consider all legitimate concerns of Russia and to reinstate a just balance of security in Europe and in the world on the whole. And I agree with President Trump, as he has said today, that naturally, the security of Ukraine should be ensured as well. Naturally, we are prepared to work on that.”
The Russian president looked the more confident of the two, speaking first and praising the US as a “close neighbour”. He even joked that the leaders’ next meeting would be in Moscow – to which Mr Trump awkwardly responded that the suggestion could get him into trouble.
Landing on US soil in Anchorage itself was a huge diplomatic coup for the Russian president, who has been isolated from world events by his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It was his first meeting with Mr Trump in seven years.
The leaders smiled broadly as they greeted each other under the din of fighter jets marking the moment with a fly-past.
Mr Trump deployed his signature handshake, yanking Putin close to him on the red carpet, but both appeared relaxed at the prospect of three hours of talks.
They then sat silently with their respective delegations seated in front of a blue backdrop that had the words "Pursuing Peace" printed on it.
Mr Trump’s previous meetings with the Russian leader during his first term often left observers questioning the nature of the relationship, with Mr Trump taking Putin’s side over Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 US election at their 2018 Helsinki summit.
But the American president appeared to have learned from those previous experiences; the White House announced that the planned one-on-one meeting would become a three-on-three with Mr Trump accompanied by secretary of state Marco Rubio and his special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff.
As he headed to the summit aboard Air Force One, Mr Trump had said he wanted the meeting to lead to a ceasefire in Ukraine and that he would not be happy if one did not emerge as a result of his talks with Putin.
“I want to see a ceasefire rapidly... I'm not going to be happy if it's not today," he said. "I want the killing to stop."
And he did not look happy after their session of talks.
The White House had said the summit would also include a bilateral lunch with their delegations, and a joint press conference – however, it appeared that lunch was cancelled, and after the media briefing, Mr Trump was believed to have flown back to Washington.
In Putin’s presence, Mr Trump’s past performances have been deferential. On this occasion he appeared more confident.
Both ignored a journalist shouting a question to Putin an his arrival: “How can the US trust your word?”.
For Ukraine and Europe it was critical that Mr Trump emerged with a ceasefire that guarantees Ukraine’s security and that does not make upfront territorial concessions to Putin.
The Russian president claims at least five provinces – Crimea, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, Donetsk and Kherson – as sovereign Russian territory, which has been already illegally annexed by the Kremlin.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was notably absent from the meeting, although Mr Trump made it clear that if his first meeting with Putin went well, he would immediately seek a follow-up rendezvous between Putin and Ukraine’s president.
Mr Zelensky had warned Mr Trump in a meeting on Wednesday with fellow European leaders that Putin was “bluffing” over his intentions to end the war in Ukraine.
Earlier in the week, Mr Trump had told reporters aboard Air Force One that: "I'm not here to negotiate for Ukraine. I'm here to get them at a table."
Mr Trump has intimated that there would have to be “swaps” of Ukrainian territory. Europe and Ukraine have outright rejected the pre-talk concessions made by Mr Trump.
En route to the summit Mr Trump insisted that, “Europe’s not telling me what to do”.
European leaders expressed concern prior to the summit about being sidelined from the meeting between DC and Moscow, with concerns that Putin would set his sights on one of their countries if he won in Ukraine.
A joint statement from 26 European Union leaders, minus pro-Putin Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, aimed to appeal to the US president to defend their security interests at Friday’s summit.
They said they “welcome the efforts of President Trump towards ending Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine”. But, they underlined, “the path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine" and "international borders must not be changed by force”.
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