Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin said that they made progress in three hours of talks on Friday
NEW YORK — Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin said that they made progress in three hours of talks on Friday, moving closer to finding an end to the Ukraine War, but did not announce an immediate ceasefire.
"It's not a done deal at all”, he told a Fox News interviewer after Friday's summit in Alaska. "And Ukraine has to agree. President (Volodymyr) Zelensky has to agree."
"We had a very good meeting today, and I think a lot of points were negotiated on behalf of Ukraine”, he said.
Before the summit, he said that he would not be negotiating on behalf of Ukraine and that the meeting was a sounding board aimed at facilitating a direct meeting between Presidents Putin and Zelensky.
"Now it's really up to President Zelensky to get it done”, President Trump said of a peace deal.
“We have a pretty good chance of getting it done”, he added.
“They’re going to set up a meeting now, between President Zelensky and President Putin and myself, I guess”, he said.
President Trump had said that he could call an immediate meeting between Presidents Putin and Zelensky if the discussion went his way.
At the end of the news conference, he told Putin, “We'll speak to you very soon, and probably see you again very soon”.
President Putin chirped up, “Next time in Moscow.”
President Trump saying that “it’s not a done deal” amounted to an admission that he did not get the immediate ceasefire he had insisted on.
At the same time, the fact that he had not terminated the negotiations within minutes and walked away, as he had threatened earlier, could be a sign of a breakthrough.
Nor did he announce the “very severe consequences” he had threatened if Putin did not agree to peace.
At the news conference after their talks concluded, Putin was upbeat.
“I would like to hope that the agreement that we've reached together will help us bring closer that goal (of finding a solution) and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine”, he said.
“I have every reason to believe that, moving along this path, we can reach the end of the conflict in Ukraine sooner rather than later”, he added.
“I believe we had a very productive meeting”, Trump said. “There were many, many points that we agreed on.”
President Trump said cryptically there were “a couple of big ones that we haven't quite gotten there, but we've made some headway”.
“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”, he added.
Fox News interviewer Sean Hannity pressed President Trump about the differences they had.
He said that he would rather not talk about it, but added, “I guess somebody is going to go public with it. They'll figure it out. But no, I don't want to do that. I want to see if we can get it done.”
The main points of difference going into the talks were: Land swap or re-drawing of borders that would give Russia some Ukrainian territories, and a security guarantee from Europeans and the US for Ukraine.
Trump has spoken of a land swap, which would be politically hard for Zelensky.
British Defence Secretary said on Friday that the United Kingdom and its allies are ready to put troops in Ukraine to guarantee its security if there is a ceasefire.
Trump also spoke in support of troops to guarantee security, but ruled out their going under the NATO banner.
Putin may have conceded the security guarantee issue as he said, “Naturally, the security of Ukraine should be true. Naturally we're prepared to overcome that.”
Trump said that he would be calling his Western allies and Zelensky to brief them on the summit.
He will have to convince the Europeans and Zelensky, who were sceptical about the summit but were willing to give it a chance that there had been progress.
The summit was truncated and only one of the planned phases – a meeting with key officials, Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, Defence Minister Andrei Belousov, and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov — was held.
Instead of the first phase, a private meeting between them, Trump and Putin spoke directly as they walked down the red carpet and continued the conversation in Trump’s limousine.
They started the talks with officials and called off the planned third phase, which was to have been a luncheon with more officials, especially those dealing with trade and investment.
Putin had said he wanted to expand the talks to include Nuclear arms control, and Ushakov suggested trade and economic cooperation.
Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, and Special Presidential Representative for Investment Kirill Dmitriev, and US Secretaries Pete Hegseth of Defence, Scott Bessent of Treasury, and Howard Lutnick of Commerce were on standby.
The third phase in which the topics were expected to be discussed, did not take place.
At the news conference, Putin made he pitch for trade, which now pre-occupies Trump
“It is clear that the US and Russian investment and business cooperation has tremendous potential”, he said. “Russia and the US can offer each other so much in trade, digital and high tech, and in space exploration”, he said.
"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 US”, Putin said.
He asserted that trade between the US and Russia had grown 20 per cent under Trump, who has threatend to penalise India with a 25 per cent tariff for buying oil from Russia.
The summit began with a choreographed welcome as the US Air Force 1 and Russia’s presidential aircraft landed almost simultaneously.
Trump clapped as Putin walked toward him on the red carpet.
They smiled and shook hands as four F-35s and a B-2 Spirit bomber flew overhead.