The highly anticipated summit between President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday concluded earlier than expected, with an awkward press appearance and no formal deal. But it was a PR victory for Putin on the world stage — and, in a surprise announcement hours later, Trump dropped his demand for a ceasefire, saying Russia and Ukraine should start negotiating on a final peace deal instead.
On Saturday, Trump told Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky that Putin wants Ukraine’s Donbas region as a condition for ending the war. He said the U.S. is open to providing security guarantees for Ukraine in the wake of an agreement.
Here are five key takeaways from the summit and its aftermath.
There was no formal deal
Friday’s summit ended without an agreement to secure peace in Ukraine — a long-standing goal for Trump.
Speaking to reporters after their meeting, Trump and Putin said they made progress, with Trump claiming the meeting was “extremely productive,” but “there’s no deal until there’s a deal.” The leaders offered few details on what was discussed or which issues remained unresolved. Reporters noted that Trump spoke for just a few minutes before stepping off stage and described him as appearing unhappy, tired or bored during the joint appearance.
‘No deal until there’s a deal’
Early on Saturday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that it had been “a great and very successful day in Alaska” and that he had spoken to Zelensky, European leaders and the NATO secretary general. It was “determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.”
It was a dramatic reversal — during his flight to Alaska, he had told Fox News he would not be happy to “walk away without some form of a ceasefire.”
Zelensky and European leaders have long insisted a ceasefire agreement or reduction in hostilities should be a precondition for talks to end the war. Putin has repeatedly rejected calls for a ceasefire and argued for negotiations for a final peace deal instead — a position Ukraine and its allies have described as a delay tactic to enable Russia to make more gains on the battlefield.
On Saturday, during a phone call, Trump told Zelensky and several European leaders that Putin is demanding Ukraine cede the entire Donbas region — an area including the Luhansk and Donetsk regions that Russian soldiers have not managed to seize during years of fighting — to Russia. This would be in addition to the Ukrainian territory Moscow has occupied, in return for a “promise” to stop the war, according to four people familiar with the discussion. All spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
President Donald Trump greets Russian President Vladimir Putin on the red carpet as they meet for their summit in Anchorage on Friday. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
Friday marked Putin’s first visit to the U.S. for talks with a president since 2007 and his first in-person meeting with Trump since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Meeting on the tarmac at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, Putin walked a red carpet toward Trump, who clapped, shook Putin’s hand warmly and patted his arm. The two leaders watched a B-2 stealth bomber flyover and stood side-by-side while they posed for cameras without answering questions from reporters.
They rode together and spoke privately in Trump’s armored limousine, without an interpreter — in a breach of security and diplomatic protocol.
The highly choreographed meeting marked a sharp contrast to Trump’s Oval Office interaction with Zelensky in February, where Trump and Vice President JD Vance publicly berated Zelensky in an on-camera altercation that had no modern precedent.
While Putin appeared uncomfortable at journalists shouting questions at him during the summit — frowning and making faces at them — Russian media portrayed the overall meeting as a massive victory for Putin. “All the attempts to paint Russia as an international pariah were destroyed in one moment, in the moment when Trump shook Putin’s hand,” a Russian state TV commentator said at one point.
The joint press appearance, where they took no questions, also gave Putin the chance to repeat his long-standing talking points about the importance of addressing the “root causes” of the war — the term Russia uses when describing its desire to demilitarize Ukraine and block its entry to NATO.
Both Trump and Putin signaled that they were ready to meet again, with Trump wrapping up his press appearance by saying they would see each other soon, and Putin quipping “next time in Moscow.”
In July, Trump threatened tariffs on Russia if the war did not stop within 50 days — and on Wednesday, he warned there would be “very severe consequences” if Putin didn’t agree to stop his war against Ukraine after their meeting, without specifying what those would be.
However, Russian officials had been optimistic ahead of the Alaska summit — with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov telling reporters that he had expected that the U.S. would lift some sanctions after the meeting. Putin also brought several business leaders with him to the meeting — something Trump noted, while saying: “They’re not doing business until we get the war settled.”
Ultimately, while the U.S. did not lift any preexisting sanctions following the meeting, it also didn’t immediately announce any new ones, despite the lack of an agreement from Russia to stop fighting in Ukraine.
After the phone conversation with Trump and European leaders, Zelensky said he would be meeting Trump in Washington on Monday. He said he had told Trump “sanctions must be strengthened if there is no trilateral meeting.” Trump has previously expressed support for a meeting involving Russian, U.S. and Ukrainian officials, although a Putin aide has said that this was not discussed in Alaska.
European leaders, who thought Trump agreed with them on the need for a ceasefire first, reiterated their support for Ukraine on Saturday, saying they were ready to support a trilateral summit. European leaders have been invited to join Zelensky and Trump in the White House on Monday, but so far they are hesitant about the meeting, two European diplomats said.
Trump also told European leaders Saturday that the U.S. would consider providing security guarantees for Ukraine in a deal, though the details were not mapped out, according to the diplomats.
“We are clear that Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity. We welcome President Trump’s statement that the U.S. is prepared to give security guarantees,” the statement from leaders of the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Poland and Finland said.
That statement did not mention their earlier position that a ceasefire should come before a peace deal.
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