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Trump-Putin summit as it happened: No Ukraine deal, Trump calls for Putin and Zelenskiy to meet next

Friday, August 15


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What's happening?

The highly anticipated summit between Trump and Putin ended without an agreement to resolve or pause Moscow's war in Ukraine.

Both leaders described the talks as productive, and during a brief appearance before the media following the nearly three-hour meeting in Alaska, they said they had made progress on unspecified issues.

But neither man offered details on the talks or took 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.

In a Fox News interview after the talks, Trump suggested a meeting would now be set up between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, which he might also attend, and said Ukraine needed to make a deal.

Putin, who made no mention of meeting Zelenskiy when speaking to reporters earlier, said he expected Ukraine and its European allies to accept the U.S.-Russia negotiation constructively and not try to"disrupt the emerging progress."

Trump and Putin exchanged warm words but left their summit without an agreement to end Moscow's war against Ukraine and gave no details about what they discussed.

Here are some takeaways from the talks:

BODY LANGUAGE AND PRAISE

  • There was no lack of warmth between the two leaders when they met on a red carpet on the tarmac at a U.S. military base in Alaska, greeting each other like old friends.
  • That warmth seemed to have waned when they appeared before the media hours later, though both men still took pains to praise each other.
  • But their efforts to project a positive personal relationship belied an underlying truth: friendship aside, they did not announce an agreement to end the war.

DEAL OR NO DEAL

  • Just ahead of the summit, Trump said his goal was a halt to the fighting between Russia and Ukraine. Hours later, when the leaders emerged from their meeting with advisers, no such deal had materialized.
  • Trump left Alaska with little to show for his efforts, puncturing a hole in his dealmaker image and depriving him of an accomplishment to tout in his campaign for the Nobel Peace Prize.

DECODING PUTIN, THROWING BIDEN UNDER THE BUS

  • Putin showed a mastery of saying things Trump likes to hear, even without giving significant ground. He gave credence to Trump's assertion that if he had been president four years ago, the war in Ukraine would never have started."I'm quite sure it would indeed be so," Putin said.
  • Despite playing into Trump's theory on the origins of the war, Putin signaled that the Ukraine conflict was a ways away from being solved.

NO QUESTIONS

  • After making statements to the media, the two men declined to take questions, depriving reporters of a chance to probe for details about their talks.
  • But Putin got a win with the invitation alone. The Russian president has been ostracized by other world leaders, so his meeting with the most powerful man in the world was a victory for the former KGB spy, and his seeming satisfaction with that showed.

Trump advised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to make a deal to end the war.

He made the comments on Fox News following his meeting with Putin.

When asked about his advice to Zelenskiy, Trump said:"Gotta make a deal. Yeah. Look, Russia is a very big power, and they're not."

Zelenskiy was not invited to Friday's Trump-Putin summit. He met with European leaders in the days leading up to it and held a virtual meeting with Trump on Wednesday. In it, he warned Trump that Putin was"bluffing" about wanting peace as a way to get territorial concessions.

Trump's wife, Melania, raised the plight of children in Ukraine and Russia in a personal letter to Putin, two White House officials said on Friday.

Trump hand-delivered the letter to Putin during their summit talks in Alaska, the officials told Reuters. Slovenian-born Melania Trump was not on the trip.

Highlights of Putin statement after summit with Trump

6 hours ago

22:08 EDT


Andrew Osborn
Putin after a press conference with Trump in Alaska, August 15, 2025. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

Some key quotes from Putin's statement after the meeting with Trump on Friday. Translation by Reuters.

ON RUSSIA-U.S. TIES

  • "The past period was very difficult for bilateral relations. And, let's be honest, they have slid to the lowest point since the Cold War. And this is not good for our countries, or the world as a whole. Obviously, sooner or later, it was necessary to correct the situation, to move from confrontation to dialogue."

ON UKRAINE

  • "We see the desire of the U.S. administration and President Trump personally to facilitate the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict, his desire to delve into the essence and understand its origins."
  • "All of Russia's legitimate concerns must be taken into account, and a fair balance in the security sphere in Europe and the world as a whole must be restored."
  • "I agree with President Trump — he spoke about this today — that Ukraine's security must, without a doubt, be ensured. We are ready to work on this."
  • "We expect that Kyiv and the European capitals will perceive all of this in a constructive manner and will not create any obstacles."

ON ECONOMIC TIES

  • "It is obvious that Russian-American business and investment partnership has enormous potential. Russia and the United States have something to offer each other in trade, energy, the digital sphere, high tech and space exploration."
  • "I expect that today's agreements will become a reference point not only for solving the Ukrainian problem, but will also launch the restoration of business-like, pragmatic relations between Russia and the United States."

ON COOPERATION WITH TRUMP

  • "Overall we have established very good business-like and trusting contact with President Trump. And I have every reason to believe that by moving along this path, we can - the quicker the better - reach an end to the conflict in Ukraine."

White House releases photo of Trump and Putin

7 hours ago

21:26 EDT

RapidResponse47 is an official account affiliated with the White House.

Putin and Zelenskiy to set up meeting, Trump says

7 hours ago

21:23 EDT

Costas Pitas and Jasper Ward

Trump said that Zelenskiy and Putin are going to set up a meeting to try to reach a ceasefire to end Russia's war in Ukraine.

"Now, it's really up to President Zelenskiy to get it done. And I would also say the European nations, they have to get involved a little bit. But it's up to President Zelenskiy... And if they'd like, I'll be at that next meeting," Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity after meeting with Putin in Alaska.

"They're going to set up a meeting now between President Zelenskiy and President Putin and myself, I guess."

Trump and Putin's failure to secure any concrete agreement in Alaska could be trouble for Beijing down the road.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's slowing economy will suffer if Trump follows through on a promise to ramp up Russia-related sanctions and tariffs if he doesn't get what he wants from Putin.

Xi and Trump are working on a trade deal that could lower tensions - and import taxes - between the world's two biggest economies.

But China could be the biggest remaining target, outside of Russia, if Trump ramps up punitive measures.

He has vowed to target imports from buyers of Russian oil with new tariffs.

China is the biggest buyer, as many of countries have turned to other energy sources since the Ukraine war.

India, another top Russian energy consumer, saw its U.S.-bound exports stung by an additional 25% tariff after Trump criticized Delhi.

7 hours ago

21:00 EDT

Jacinta Goh and Reagan Yip

Here are some visuals of key meetings between U.S. and Soviet leaders from the Reuters archives.

1945: FDR MEETS STALIN

Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin in Yalta, 1945. Reuters archives.

On February 4, 1945, then U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the Crimean town of Yalta to plan the final defeat of Nazi Germany.

1945: THE POTSDAM CONFERENCE

Churchill, Truman and Stalin in Potsdam, 1945. Reuters archives.

Opening on July 17, 1945, it was the last of the historic meetings between leaders of the allied powers in World War Two.

The U.S. was represented by President Harry Truman, who had succeeded to office three months earlier on the death of Franklin Roosevelt, in meeting with Stalin and Churchill.

1972: NIXON MEETS BREZHNEV

Nixon and Brezhnev in Moscow, 1972. Reuters archives.

In 1972, then U.S. President Nixon signed arms control treaties with his Soviet counterpart Leonid Brezhnev at a Moscow summit.

The meeting has been considered one of the hallmarks of the détente between the two countries during the Cold War.

1987: REAGAN MEETS GORBACHEV

Gorbachev and Reagan in Versoix, Switzerland, in 1985, and in Washington, 1987. Reuters archives.

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, the first agreement between the two superpowers to cut their nuclear arsenals, was signed by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1987.

While the main focus of the talks was Ukraine, Putin spoke briefly about the possibility of new business deals between the United States and Russia.

"It is clear that the U.S. and Russian investment and business cooperation has tremendous potential," he said in the press conference. Russia and the U.S."can offer each other so much in trade, digital, high tech and in space exploration."

A later statement from Russia added "cooperation in the Arctic" and "resumption of interregional contacts."

Trump, asked about the economic opportunities between the two countries during a Friday interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, said"yeah, they're bringing a lot of people. Over 500 people are coming. A lot of them are businessmen."

Any shift in the investment climate between the two countries could be a radical change for U.S. companies.

After Putin sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022, many Western companies, including McDonald's and Caterpillar, left Russia, taking hefty writedowns and selling assets.

Talks allow to further seek ways for settlement, Interfax cites Kremlin

7 hours ago

20:37 EDT

The Kremlin spokesman said that the talks between Putin and Trump allowed the countries to continue seeking ways for settlement, the Interfax news agency reported.

"The conversation was indeed very positive, and the two presidents spoke about this. This is the very conversation that allows us to confidently move forward together along the path of searching for settlement options," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

He did not elaborate which settlement he meant.

Screengrab of video posted to News_Kremlin on Telegram

The video, posted to the Kremlin's official Telegram account, shows Trump speaking animatedly and directly to Putin. The Russian leader appears to rock back and forth in his shoes, then gives Trump a robust handshake.

Trump told Fox News, after his meeting with Putin, that he gave"today a 10" on a scale of one to 10.

8 hours ago

20:19 EDT

CAROL SCHLEIF, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST, BMO PRIVATE WEALTH, MINNEAPOLIS:

"The only news was absolutely no news out of it. Not sure there will be any market impactful portions - geopolitical issues in general do not tend to preoccupy market attention for very long if at all."

ERIC TEAL, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, COMERICA, CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA:

"The fact that there were no economic sanctions is a positive and markets should breathe a sigh of relief, but it doesn't appear as though a deal is in hand."

"If anything, we see opportunity in the energy sector, as oil prices are at pretty low levels here and the prospect of sanctions on oil did not bear out. There could be a relief rally and that would be an opportunity to invest in energy as we head into higher seasonal demands and economic growth beginning to re-accelerate."

EUGENE EPSTEIN, HEAD OF TRADING AND STRUCTURED PRODUCTS, NORTH AMERICA, MONEYCORP, NEW JERSEY:

"I don't think anybody expected it to be particularly specific or substantive. It's essentially a first step towards potentially something more. They both kind of said everything diplomatically. But it's more about the significance of the meeting as a whole, as opposed to the content of what they're saying."

8 hours ago

20:13 EDT

Trump embarks on Air Force One and waves

8 hours ago

20:10 EDT

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