A highly anticipated summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday yielded no agreement to resolve or pause Moscow’s war in Ukraine, though both leaders described the talks as productive.
During a brief appearance before the media following the nearly three-hour meeting in Alaska, the two leaders said they had made progress on unspecified issues. But they offered no details and took no questions, with the normally loquacious Trump ignoring shouted questions from reporters.
“We’ve made some headway,” Trump said, standing in front of a backdrop that read, “Pursuing Peace.”
“There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” he added.
The talks did not initially appear to have produced meaningful steps toward a ceasefire in the deadliest conflict in Europe in 80 years, a goal Trump had set ahead of the summit.
But simply sitting down face-to-face with the US president represented a victory for Putin, who had been ostracized by Western leaders since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
