President Donald Trump failed to secure an agreement from Vladimir Putin on Friday to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, falling short in his most significant move yet to stop the bloodshed, even after rolling out the red carpet for the man who started it.
“There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” the U.S. president said, after Mr. Putin claimed they had hammered out an “understanding” on Ukraine and warned Europe not to “torpedo the nascent progress.” Mr. Trump said he would call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders to brief them on the talks.
Mr. Trump, who for years has balked at American support for Ukraine and expressed admiration for Mr. Putin, had pledged confidently to bring about an end to the war on his first day back in the White House. Seven months later, after berating Mr. Zelenskyy in the Oval Office and stanching the flow of some U.S. military assistance to Kyiv, Mr. Trump could not bring Putin even to pause the fighting, as his forces make gains on the battlefield.
Mr. Trump had offered Putin both a carrot and a stick, issuing threats of punishing economic sanctions on Russia while also extending a warm welcome at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, but he appeared to walk away without any concrete result on ending the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year.
Instead, he handed Mr. Putin long-sought recognition on the international stage, after years of Western efforts to make him a pariah over the war and his crackdown on dissent, and forestalled for Mr. Putin the threat of additional U.S. sanctions.
In a sign that the conversations did not yield Mr. Trump’s preferred result, the two leaders ended what was supposed to be a joint news conference without taking questions from reporters.
During a subsequent interview with Fox News Channel before leaving Alaska, Mr. Trump called it a “very warm meeting” but declined to give details about what he and Putin discussed. He said, “It’s not a done deal at all.”
“A lot of points were negotiated,” Mr. Trump said, but added, “As far as I’m concerned there’s no deal until there’s a deal. But we did make a lot of progress.”
Mr. Trump also insisted that the onus going forward might be somehow on Mr. Zelenskyy “to get it done” but said there would also be some involvement from European nations.
The U.S. president had wanted to show off his deal-making skills, while Mr. Putin wanted to negotiate a deal that would cement Russia’s gains, block Kyiv’s bid to join the NATO military alliance, and eventually pull Ukraine back into Moscow’s orbit.
“We had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to,” Mr. Trump said during their joint appearance. “And 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.”
He continued: “We didn’t get there.”
Excluded from Trump and Putin’s discussions, Mr. Zelenskyy was left posting a video address before the meeting in which he expressed his hope for a “strong position from the U.S.”
Putin thanks Trump for his ‘friendly tone’
For Mr. Putin, just being on U.S. soil for the first time in more than a decade was validation after his ostracization following his invasion of Ukraine.
His meeting with Trump may stall the economic sanctions that the U.S. president had promised unless Moscow worked harder to bring fighting to a close. It may now simply lead to more meetings, giving his forces more time to make progress on the battlefield.
Mr. Putin thanked Trump for the “friendly” tone of their conversation and said Russia and the United States should “turn the page and go back to cooperation.”
He praised Mr. Trump as someone who “has a clear idea of what he wants to achieve and sincerely cares about the prosperity of his country, and at the same time shows understanding that Russia has its own national interests.”
“I expect that today’s agreements will become a reference point not only for solving the Ukrainian problem, but will also mark the beginning of the restoration of businesslike, pragmatic relations between Russia and the U.S.,” Mr. Putin said.
Despite not reaching any major breakthrough, Mr. Trump ended his remarks by thanking Mr. Putin and saying, “we’ll speak to you very soon and probably see you again very soon.”
When Mr. Putin smiled and offered, “next time in Moscow,” Mr. Trump said “that’s an interesting one” and said he might face criticism but “I could see it possibly happening.”
Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin had greeted each other with warm handshake, chatting almost like they were old friends, and gripped hands for an extended period of time on a red carpet rolled out at the military base. As they chatted, Putin grinned and pointed skyward, where B-2s and F-22s — military aircraft designed to oppose Russia during the Cold War — flew overhead. The two then shared the U.S. presidential limo known as “The Beast” for a short ride to their meeting site, with Mr. Putin offering a broad smile as the vehicle rolled past the cameras.
It was the kind of reception typically reserved for close U.S. allies and belied the bloodshed and suffering in the war Mr. Putin started in Ukraine. Although not altogether surprising considering their longtime friendly relationship, such outward friendliness before hours of closed-door meetings likely raised concerns from Mr. Zelenskyy and European leaders, who fear that Mr. Trump is primarily focusing on furthering U.S. interests and not pressing hard enough for Ukraine’s.
Not a one-on-one meeting
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said shortly before Air Force One touched down that the previously planned one-on-one meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin would be a three-on-three discussion including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff. Mr. Putin was joined by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov.
The change seemed to indicate that the White House was taking a more guarded approach than it did during a 2018 meeting in Helsinki, where Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin met privately with their interpreters and Mr. Trump then shocked the world by siding with the Russian leader over U.S. intelligence officials on whether Russia meddled in the 2016 campaign.
Mr. Zelenskyy’s exclusion was also a heavy blow to the West’s policy of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” and invites the possibility that Mr. Trump could agree to a deal that Ukraine does not want.
War still raging
Russia and Ukraine remain far apart in their demands for peace. Mr. Putin has long resisted any temporary ceasefire, linking it to a halt in Western arms supplies and a freeze on Ukraine’s mobilization efforts, which are conditions rejected by Kyiv and its Western allies.
The meeting comes as the war has caused heavy losses on both sides and drained resources. Ukraine has held on far longer than some initially expected since the February 2022 invasion, but it is straining to hold off Russia’s much larger army, grappling with bombardments of its cities and fighting for every inch on the over 600-mile (1,000-kilometer) front line.
Alaska is separated from Russia at its closest point by just 3 miles (less than 5 kilometers) and the international date line.
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson was crucial to countering the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It continues to play a role today, as planes from the base still intercept Russian aircraft that regularly fly into U.S. airspace.
This story was reported by The Associated Press. Will Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Jonathan J. Cooper in Washington, Elise Morton in London and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: This story, originally posted at 8:39 p.m. on Aug. 15, was updated with developing news.