Trump-Putin meeting: 3 hours of talks on Ukraine crisis, claim of 'big progress', but no ceasefire announced

Despite his campaign pledge to swiftly end the Russia-Ukraine war, US President Donald Trump failed on Friday, August 15, to secure an agreement from Vladimir Putin — falling short in his most ambitious effort yet to halt the bloodshed, even after rolling out a lavish welcome for the man who launched it.

“There's no deal until there's a deal,” the US president said, after Putin claimed they had hammered out an “understanding” on Ukraine and warned Europe not to “torpedo the nascent progress.” Trump said he would call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders to brief them on the talks.

For years, Trump balked at American support for Ukraine while voicing admiration for Putin. Upon returning to the White House, he pledged confidently to end the war on his very first day. Yet seven months later — after berating Zelenskyy in the Oval Office and curbing the flow of US military aid to Kyiv — Trump has been unable to secure even a pause in the fighting, as Russian forces press their battlefield gains.

Trump tried a mix of carrot and stick — warning of harsher economic sanctions while rolling out a warm welcome for Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. But he left the summit with no concrete progress toward ending the war in Ukraine, now grinding into its fourth year.

Instead, Trump granted Putin the international recognition he has long sought — easing the isolation imposed by the West over the war and his crackdown on dissent — while holding back the threat of further U.S. sanctions.

Underscoring the absence of Trump’s desired breakthrough, the two leaders wrapped up what was billed as a joint press conference without fielding questions from reporters.

In a follow-up interview with Fox News before departing Alaska, Trump suggested the onus might now fall on Zelenskyy ‘to get it done,’ while hinting at a role for European nations — a striking remark given that Ukraine’s president had been excluded from the Trump-Putin meeting altogether.

Trump had hoped to showcase his deal-making prowess, while Putin aimed to secure a bargain that would lock in Russia’s battlefield gains, derail Kyiv’s NATO ambitions, and ultimately draw Ukraine back into Moscow’s orbit.

“We had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to,” Trump said while standing next to Putin. “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.”

Putin, for his part, said Trump had shown ‘understanding’ that Russia has its own interests — a remark likely to unsettle Kyiv and European allies who fear Washington may be drifting closer to Moscow’s line.

For Putin, simply setting foot on US soil for the first time in over a decade amounted to validation, breaking through the isolation imposed after 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 the fighting to a close. It also may simply lead to more meetings, giving his forces more time to make progress on the battlefield.

Putin said Russia and the United States should “turn the page and go back to cooperation.”

He praised 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 US,” Putin said.

Despite not reaching any major breakthrough, Trump ended his remarks by thanking Putin and saying, “we'll speak to you very soon and probably see you again very soon.”

When Putin smiled and offered, “next time in Moscow,” Trump said “that's an interesting one” and said he might face criticism but “I could see it possibly happening.”

During the interview with Fox News, Trump bragged that Putin echoed many of the U.S. president's long-standing grievances, including about the 2020 election. This suggests that Putin, a former KGB officer, may have left Trump with the impression that he'd notched a big win even as he left empty handed.

When Trump and Putin arrived in Alaska, they had greeted each other with a warm handshake, chatting almost like old friends, and gripped hands for an extended period 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 US presidential limo for a short ride to their meeting site, with Putin offering a broad smile as they 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 Putin started in Ukraine. Although not altogether surprising considering their longtime friendly relationship, such outward friendliness likely raised concerns from Zelenskyy and European leaders, who fear that 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 Trump and Putin would be a three-on-three discussion including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff. 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 Trump and Putin met privately with their interpreters and Trump then shocked the world by siding with the Russian leader over U.S. intelligence officials on whether Russia meddled in the 2016 campaign.

Zelenskyy's exclusion was also a heavy blow to the West's policy of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”

War still raging

Russia and Ukraine remain far apart in their demands for peace. 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 US airspace.

With AP/PTI inputs