“There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” Donald Trump said after about six hours on the ground in Alaska. He and Vladimir Putin had just finished their summit at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage on August 15, 2025, with nothing signed on the war in Ukraine.
Trump said the two sides made “great progress” and “some headway.” The two leaders delivered statements at a joint news conference and took no questions. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti why: “Exhaustive statements were made.” Air Force One left Elmendorf around 4:20 p.m. local time for Washington.
Trump hands the next move to Zelensky
That evening Trump went on Fox News with Sean Hannity and put the burden on Ukraine’s president. “Now it’s really up to President Zelensky to get it done,” he said. He expected a meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky, Putin and himself soon. “They both want me there, and I’ll be there.”
He said he and Putin had “largely” agreed on land swaps and some type of US security guarantee for Ukraine. “I think we’re pretty close to the end,” he said. “And look, Ukraine has to agree to it.” His message to Zelensky was short: “Gotta make a deal.”
Asked to grade the meeting, Trump gave it a 10, “in the sense that we got along great.” He had said earlier that he would not be “happy” without a ceasefire that day. He called Putin a “strong guy” and “tough as hell.” He also admitted he had been wrong about how hard the war would be to settle: “I thought this would be the easiest of them all, and it was the most difficult.”
Trump had threatened harsh sanctions on Russia earlier in the month, then backed off that deadline once Putin agreed to meet face to face. After Alaska he signaled that he would hold off on “severe consequences” for now. “I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something,” he said.
Skepticism from Eastern Europe
Putin said he wanted the conflict to end, but that its primary causes had to be “eliminated,” and he pointed to “fundamental threats to (Russia’s) security.” He also warned Ukraine and Europe not to “sabotage” progress made at the summit.
Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene wrote on X that Putin had offered “more gaslighting and veiled threats.” Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky, according to Reuters, welcomed Trump’s efforts but doubted that Putin wanted a deal. “If Putin were serious about negotiating peace, he would not have been attacking Ukraine all day today,” he said.
A CNN analysis of the day judged that Putin came away with two wins. One was the red carpet welcome and a ride in “the Beast,” which it described as reputational rehabilitation for an alleged war criminal. The other was time for his forces to advance, with his summer offensive close to turning incremental gains into strategic ones. Putin and Trump did not even lunch together, CNN noted, and Putin left quickly by plane.
Russia’s top economic envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, said the US had received Russia “very well” in Alaska and that the two countries would keep building relations.
