A highly anticipated summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin yielded no agreement to resolve or pause Moscow’s war in Ukraine, although both leaders described the talks as productive before heading home.
© Sergei Bobylev/POOL/TASS
“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.
“I think we’re pretty close to a deal,” he said, adding: “Ukraine has to agree to it. Maybe they’ll say no.”
When asked by Hannity what he would advise Zelenskiy, Trump said, “Gotta make a deal.”
“President Trump had a lengthy call during the flight back to DC with <…> Zelensky,” Trump’s press pool said, citing Leavitt. The report added that the US president also called NATO leaders.
© Gavriil Grigorov/Russian Preside
“A full-fledged mechanism for high-level meetings between Russia and the US has been restored. It is peaceful, free of ultimatums or threats. 2. The Russian president presented our conditions for ending the conflict in Ukraine to the US leader in person and in detail. 3. Following nearly three hours of talks, the White House host has refused to escalate pressure on Russia. At least for now,” Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel, summing up the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump.
On August 15, a summit between Russia and the US took place at a military base in Alaska. The talks lasted more than three hours and included several formats: one-on-one in the American leader’s limousine en route to the main venue and in a small group of “three on three.” The Russian delegation included Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while the US delegation comprised Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Russia-US relations
- The talks with Trump were useful and constructive: “Our talks took place in a trustful and constructive atmosphere and were quite substantive and useful.”
- In recent years, Russia-US relations fell “to their lowest since the Cold War.” “As you know, Russia and the US have not held summits for over four years, which is a long time. That wasn’t an easy period in bilateral relations, which, let’s face it, fell to their lowest since the Cold War, which benefits neither our countries nor the world in general.”
- Russia-US trade started to grow under Trump, even though the growth rate is not high at this point. “Our trade started to grow after the new US administration came to power. So far, it’s merely symbolic, but it’s still a rise of 20%. I mean that we have a lot of promising areas for joint work.”
- Russia and the US have a lot to offer each other in various areas of cooperation. “Russia-US business and investment cooperation clearly has a lot of potential. Russia and the US have a lot to offer each other in trade, the energy sector, the digital industry, high technology and space exploration. Arctic cooperation also looks relevant, as well as the resumption of interregional ties, particularly between Russia’s Far East and the US West Coast.”
Ukraine settlement
- The agreements reached in Alaska “will be the starting point for resolving the Ukraine issue” and improving Russia-US relations.
- Russia has always seen the people of Ukraine as brotherly and the current developments as tragic and painful.
- Russia is interested in putting an end to the Ukraine crisis: “Our country is sincerely interested in ending it all.”
- Russia is ready to work to ensure Ukraine’s security: “I agree with President Trump – he has spoken about it today – that Ukraine’s security also needs to be ensured. We are certainly ready to work on that.”
- The understanding reached with Trump will pave the way for peace in Ukraine, the Russian leader hopes.
- The conflict in Ukraine would have never started had Donald Trump been the president of the United States in 2022. “I remember that during my last contact with the previous [US] administration in 2022, I tried to convince my then American counterpart that the situation should not be brought to the point of no return, where it would come to hostilities. And I said it quite directly back then that it’s a big mistake. Today, when President Trump says that if he had been president, there would have been no war, I’m quite sure that’s the way it would have been. I can confirm that.”
- An end to the conflict in Ukraine is secured “the sooner the better.”
On good-neighborly relations
- Holding a Russia-US summit in Alaska is logical because the two counties are neighbors: “It’s quite logical to meet here because our countries are close neighbors despite being separated by oceans.”
- Russia is grateful to the US for its respect for the memory of the Soviet soldiers buried in Alaska. “Soviet pilots who died during their heroic mission are buried in a military cemetery just a few kilometers from here. We are grateful to the US authorities and citizens for respecting their memory. This is noble and dignified behavior.
