Trump leaves Alaska summit with Putin empty-handed after failing to
reach a deal to end Ukraine war
[August 16, 2025]
By MICHELLE L. PRICE and WILL WEISSERT
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska (AP) — President Donald Trump
failed to secure an agreement from Vladimir Putin on Friday to end
Russia’s war in Ukraine, falling short in his most significant move yet
to stop the bloodshed, even after rolling out the red carpet for the man
who started it.
“There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” the U.S. 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.
Trump, who for years has balked at American support for Ukraine and
expressed admiration for Putin, had pledged confidently to bring about
an end to the war on his first day back in the White House. Seven months
later, after berating Zelenskyy in the Oval Office and stanching the
flow of some U.S. military assistance to Kyiv, Trump could not bring
Putin even to pause the fighting, as his forces make gains on the
battlefield.
The U.S. president had offered Putin both a carrot and a stick, issuing
threats of punishing economic sanctions on Russia while also extending a
warm welcome at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, but he
appeared to walk away without any concrete progress on ending the war in
Ukraine, now in its fourth year.
Instead, he handed Putin long-sought recognition on the international
stage, after years of Western efforts to make him a pariah over the war
and his crackdown on dissent, and forestalled the threat of additional
U.S. sanctions.
In a sign that the conversations did not yield Trump’s preferred result,
the two leaders ended what was supposed to be a joint news conference
without taking questions from reporters.
During a subsequent interview with Fox News Channel before leaving
Alaska, Trump insisted that the onus going forward might be somehow on
Zelenskyy “to get it done,” but said there would also be some
involvement from European nations. That was notable since Zelenskyy was
excluded from Trump and Putin's meeting.
The U.S. president had wanted to show off his deal-making skills, while
Putin wanted to negotiate a deal that would cement Russia’s gains, block
Kyiv’s bid to join the NATO military alliance and eventually pull
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 says Trump ‘shows understanding’ that Russia has its own
interests
For Putin, just being on U.S. soil for the first time in more than a
decade was validation after his ostracization following 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 U.S.,” 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.”
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President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin speak
during a news conference at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska,
Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
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 U.S.
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 U.S. airspace.
___
Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Matthew
Lee and Jonathan J. Cooper in Washington, Elise Morton in London and
Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.
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