All eyes were on Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin as they met for the first time in more than six years, the Russian president visiting the US for high-stakes talks that could reshape the war in Ukraine.
The two leaders greeted each other with a handshake after stepping off their planes at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Anchorage, Alaska – and a smiling Trump even applauded Putin as he approached him on a red carpet that had been laid out.
Following the talks, both leaders described the summit as productive but said no deal had been reached – and the word ceasefire was not mentioned by either.
Trump-Putin summit – latest updates
They did not take questions from reporters – leaving perhaps even more questions than before the talks started.
Here is the view from our correspondents on what the summit means for Ukraine, Putin and Trump.
‘The first question: what’s the most significant stumbling block?’
Had they mentioned a ceasefire today, it would have changed the nature of the discussion, says US correspondent James Matthews. We appear to be well short of that, I think.
Putin’s statement about the fundamental causes – to make this settlement lasting and long term, we need to eliminate the primary cause to consider all legitimate concerns of Russia. That’s been Russia’s starting point and it’s been the sticking point throughout this whole process.
For Putin to stand on that stage alongside Trump and have the confidence to articulate that tells me that that resonates with Trump, and Putin is welded to that as an ongoing position – a position which is unacceptable to Ukraine.
In terms of Trump, he was talking up the meeting, called it very productive. We haven’t quite got there, he said. There’s no deal until there’s a deal.
He spoke about how he was going to call NATO, Zelenskyy, and it was an extremely productive meeting, he said – accentuating the positive, but in there was the negative. He said there are many points that we agree to, but many points yet to be agreed – some not significant, one most significant.
Of course, the first question would have been, had they taken questions, well what’s the most significant stumbling block? And what are you going to do about it? Are you with him on that? And if you’re not, what are the consequences
So frankly, if both those men, both big beasts in this conflict, the two individuals most influential, if they are both welded to Russia’s headline ask, what Russia has wanted all along throughout this, then I have to say there will be pessimism around the prospect of taking this any further.
I’m not quite sure what the reaction is that Trump expects in Ukraine and in European capitals, but it might be a very difficult phone call. Elsewhere in that discussion or these two separate statements, we got a sense, I thought, of Putin the player, how he has succeeded in reeling in Donald Trump and engaging with him as an old friend – that’s how it very much appeared, the old friend that he’s invited back to Moscow.
‘A dictator riding alongside the most powerful man in the world’
Donald Trump landed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson with the aspiration of departing a few hours later hailed as a peacemaker and a deal broker, says US correspondent Martha Kelner.
Instead he goes back to Washington having let an international pariah back in from the cold and seemingly received precious little in return.
If Putin pitched up on the tarmac of many of the world’s airports he could, in theory, be immediately handcuffed. This, after all, is a man wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, including for the alleged abduction of Ukrainian children.
Instead, the red carpet was, quite literally, rolled out for him in Anchorage. A flypast was arranged, featuring F35 fighter jets, the very planes that are regularly scrambled to intercept Russian aircraft operating off the coast of Alaska. Various military members lined up to salute him.
Then came the most surprising moment of all. Alongside Trump, Putin climbed in the Beast, the US President’s heavily armoured limousine. A dictator, who invaded a sovereign nation three-and-a-half years ago and has been in isolation ever since, riding alongside the most powerful man in the world on a US military base.
No wonder he was grinning in the back seat.
‘Putin spoke as if he was the host’
“It was one of the most unusual press conferences, that I’ve attended,” says Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett, who travelled with the Russian delegation to Alaska. “And that says something because I’ve been to all of Vladimir Putin’s recent ones. And those are very unusual.
“First and foremost, they said they agreed on many points, but we don’t know what those are. We were told it would be a joint press conference, but it wasn’t. They were no questions. That must be the first and only time that Donald Trump has not taken any questions from the press. And that’s probably because Vladimir Putin made that a condition – he often does at press conferences.”
“Donald Trump has said first he has to take what has been agreed to the Ukrainians, to NATO, to get sign off. But I thought what was really interesting was the fact that Vladimir Putin was the first person to speak at the press conference. It was as if that he was the host rather than Donald Trump.
“And he said that he welcomed Donald Trump like a neighbour again, kind of cementing this idea that he was the one in charge here, he was the one calling the shots. And even though the banner behind him, the slogan, said ‘Pursuing Peace’, it felt like he was pursuing something else here. He was pursuing better bilateral relations with the United States, because that’s the first thing he talked about.
“He talked up the common shared history between these two countries. He talked about the need to repair bilateral relations because they’ve plunged their lowest point since the Cold War. And there was lots of flattery for Donald Trump’s efforts to find peace.
“But we still don’t know what has been agreed here. Putin said the root causes of the conflict still need to be resolved. That suggests that all of Russia’s red lines still remain, that it doesn’t want NATO to expand any further east. It wants Ukraine to agree to permanent neutrality, wants limits on its armed forces. It basically sees Ukraine as a buffer state in between Russia and NATO. And that term ‘root cause’ suggests all of those demands still stand.
“So it doesn’t look like Vladimir Putin has made any concessions, despite Donald Trump claiming that many points have been agreed upon over there.”
Read more:
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The snowy remote base where Trump is hosting Putin
Our international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn, in Kyiv, gauged the Ukrainian reaction to Putin’s arrival – and says people are furious at the red carpet welcome extended by the Trump team.
Images of US soldiers on their knees, unfurling the red carpet at the steps of the Russian leader’s plane, have been going viral, he reports.
Social media has been lit up with fury, anger, and disgust, he says. There are different ways of welcoming a world leader to this type of event, and Trump has gone all out to give a huge welcome to Putin, which is sticking in the craw of Ukrainians.
