President Trump proclaimed Friday he and Russian President Vladimir Putin made “great progress” toward ending Moscow’s war on Ukraine after meeting for nearly three hours in Alaska — while cautioning “there’s no deal until there’s a deal.”
Trump, 79, and Putin, 72, didn’t publicly mention any details of a preliminary “understanding” toward ending the long-running war, with the US leader saying he would be calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and key European allies to discuss negotiations.
“There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them,” Trump said at a media availability where neither he nor Putin took any questions.
Putin, like Trump, described the meeting as productive and claimed repeatedly that the men had made an “understanding” without providing any details.
The strongman added that he hoped “today’s understanding 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 the US.”
“I would like to hope that the understanding that we’ve reached together will help us bring closer that goal and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine,” Putin went on. “We expect that Kyiv and European capitals will perceive that constructively and that they won’t throw a wrench in the works.”
Hours earlier, Trump had said that anything short of an immediate cease-fire would be unsatisfactory.
Putin craned his head upward to look at the massive V-shaped bomber, which Trump used on June 22 to attack a key Iranian nuclear site after Tehran balked at his proposal for a bilateral deal.
The show of force was coupled with personal courtesy, with Trump inviting Putin to get into his own armored limousine, the Beast, for a short drive to the venue for their talks.
