Donald Trump met Vladimir Putin face-to-face for a historic summit set to determine not only the trajectory of the war in Ukraine, but the fate of European security and the future relevance of the United States.
Landing on US soil was itself a huge diplomatic coup for the Russian president, who has been insolated from world events by his full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It was his first meeting with Mr Trump in seven years.
The leaders smiled broadly as greeted each other under the din of fighter jets marking the moment with a fly-past.
Mr Trump deployed his signature handshake, yanking Putin close to him on the red carpet, but both appeared relaxed at the prospect of seven hours of talks.
They then sat silently with their respective delegations seated in front of a blue backdrop that had the words, “Pursuing Peace” printed on it.
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Mr Trumpâs previous meetings with the Russian leader during his first term often left observers questioning the nature of the relationship, with Mr Trump taking Putinâs side over Russiaâs efforts to interfere in the 2016 US election at their 2018 Helsinki summit.
But the American president appeared to have learned from those previous experiences; the White House announced that the planned one-on-one meeting would become a three-on-three with Trump accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff.
Neither leader took any questions when reporters were brought into the meeting at its outset, leaving the hundreds of press gathered at the summit sight to wait and hope both leaders would have more to say at a scheduled joint press conference.
As he headed to the summit aboard Air Force One, Mr Trump said he wanted the meeting to lead to a ceasefire in Ukraine and that he would not be unhappy if one did not emerge as a result of his talks with Putin.
âI want to see a ceasefire rapidly… I’m not going to be happy if it’s not today,” he said. “I want the killing to stop.”
He had also vowed that the Russian president is ânot going to mess around with meâ as he attempts to secure a ceasefire deal. And he floated the possibility of inviting European leaders, including Ukraineâs Volodymyr Zelensky, to a second round of negotiations, after the meeting in Alaska.
The White House had said the summit would also include a bilateral lunch with their delegations, and a joint press conference.
In Putinâs presence, Mr Trumpâs past performances have been deferential. On this occasion he appeared more confident.
Both ignored a journalist shouting a question to Putin; âHow can the US trust your word?â.
Putin would be arrested, in theory, if he landed in European or British territory. But here, diplomacy trumped ethics.
For Ukraine and Europe it is critical that Trump emerges with a ceasefire that guarantees Ukraineâs security and that does not make upfront territorial concessions to Putin.
The Russian president claims at least five provinces, Crimea, Zaporizhzhia, Lukhansk, Donetsk and Kherson, as sovereign Russian territory – which has been already illegally annexed by the Kremlin.
Russiaâs foreign minister Sergei Lavrov was awaiting the two heads of state at the military base in Anchorage, where he arrived donning a USSR sweatshirt beneath his black gilet. The first three letters of âCCCPâ peeked out beneath in reference to the Russian-language cognate of USSR.
Prior to the summit, the veteran politician, one of the five members of Russiaâs delegation, said: âWe never try to anticipate the outcome of negotiations.
âWhat we do know, however, is that we have arguments we can contribute to the discussion and that our position is clear. We will present it.â
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was notably absent from the meeting, although Mr Trump made it clear that if his first meeting with Putin went well, he would immediately seek a follow-up rendezvous between Putin and Ukraineâs president.
Mr Zelensky warned Mr Trump in a meeting on Wednesday with fellow European leaders that Putin was âbluffingâ over his intentions to end the war in Ukraine.
Mr Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that it would be up to Ukrainians to decide whether to concede land to Putin as part of a peace deal, adding: âI think they’ll make the proper decision.”
“I’m not here to negotiate for Ukraine,” Trump said. “I’m here to get them at a table.”
Mr Trump has intimated that there would have to be âswapsâ of Ukrainian territory. Europe and Ukraine have outright rejected the pre-talk concessions made by Trump.
En route to the summit Trump insisted that âEuropeâs not telling me what to doâ.
European leaders expressed concern prior to the summit about being sidelined from the meeting between DC and Moscow, with concerns that Putin would set his sights on one of the countries if he won in Ukraine.
A joint statement from 26 European Union leaders minus pro-Putin Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, aimed to appeal to the US president to defend their security interests at Fridayâs summit.
They said they âwelcome the efforts of President Trump towards ending Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraineâ. But, they underlined, âthe path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine” and “international borders must not be changed by forceâ.
