Five takeaways from the meeting

When President Vladimir Putin landed back onto the world stage on Friday, the skies in Alaska were cloudy. Waiting with a red carpet spread across the tarmac of the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson was US President Donald Trump.

As Putin approached, Trump clapped. The two leaders warmly shook hands and smiled.

It was a remarkable moment for Putin – a leader who most Western nations have shunned since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. His international travel has since been largely limited to nations friendly to the Russian Federation, such as North Korea and Belarus.

The fact that the Alaska summit happened at all was a victory for Putin. But this welcome would have surpassed the Kremlin’s wildest dreams. In a short six months Putin went from being a pariah in the eyes of the West to being welcomed on US soil like a partner and friend.

To cap it off, in an apparently unscripted moment, Putin decided to accept a lift to the airbase in Trump’s armoured limousine instead of driving in his own Moscow-plated presidential state car.

As the vehicle pulled away, the cameras zoomed in on Putin, sitting in the backseat and laughing.

In his 25 years as Russian president, Putin has achieved complete control over the media, crushing journalistic freedoms and replacing information with propaganda. Within Russia he doesn’t often – if ever – come up against unfriendly reporters.

Yet it was only minutes after landing in Alaska that one journalist shouted in his direction: “Will you stop killing civilians?” If the question bothered him, he didn’t show it, appearing instead to shrug and diverting his gaze.

During a brief and somewhat chaotic photo op, more questions were shouted, including one in Russian about whether Putin would be ready to meet President Zelensky for a trilateral summit. Again, there was no obvious reaction from the Russian president beyond a cryptic smirk.

The world’s media gathered in the room with Putin and Trump had been led to expect a press conference; instead, the two leaders gave statements and took no questions from reporters.

Unusually, Putin was the first to speak. He praised the “constructive atmosphere of mutual respect” of the “neighbourly” talks, and then launching into a condensed history of Alaska’s past as a Russian territory.

As Putin spoke, Trump stood in silence. It was several minutes before the Russian president mentioned what he called the “situation in Ukraine” – ostensibly the catalyst for the summit. When he did, it was to state that although an unspecified “agreement” had been reached, the “root causes” of the conflict had to be eliminated before peace could be achieved.

The phrase will have set off alarm bells in Kyiv and beyond. Since the start of the war it has become shorthand for a series of intractable and maximalist demands that Putin say stand in the way of a ceasefire.

They include recognition of Russian sovereignty over the Ukrainian regions of Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson as well as Ukraine agreeing to demilitarisation, neutrality, no foreign military involvement and new elections. Essentially, they amount to capitulation – unacceptable to Kyiv, but clearly – even after three and a half years of bloody conflict – still paramount to Moscow.

With this, it was clear that there was no deal.

Extraordinarily – given the context and the premise for the summit – when it was Trump’s turn to speak he did not mention Ukraine or the possibility of a ceasefire once. The closest he came to referencing the conflict was saying that “five, six, seven thousand people a week” are killed and noting that Putin too wanted to see an end to the bloodshed.

The usually loquacious Trump seemed to have less to say than Putin. His statement was notable for its relative, and unusual, brevity – but primarily for its vagueness. “There were many, many points that we agreed on,” Trump said, adding that “great progress” had been made in an “extremely productive meeting”.

But he did not share any details and it did not appear that any concrete steps taken towards a resolution of the Ukrainian conflict. No major agreements or a trilateral meeting with President Zelensky were announced.

And – to Moscow’s relief – there was no mention of any “severe consequences” that Trump threatened would follow if a ceasefire wasn’t reached.

“We didn’t get there,” Trump admitted.

Then, optimistically though vaguely, he added: “But we have a very good chance of getting there.”

The summit may have failed to yield any tangible progress towards peace in Ukraine, but it cemented the rapprochement between Russia and the US.

Pictures of the two presidents repeatedly shaking hands and grinning travelled far and wide on social media – as did images of American servicemen kneeling as they rolled out the red carpet at the foot of Putin’s plane.

Before wrapping up his statement, Putin referenced one of the US president’s frequent talking points – that the conflict in Ukraine would have never started had Trump been in power.

Despite Trump’s assertion of “great progress”, nothing of substance was unveiled at the Alaska summit – yet the two leaders left the door open for another meeting, this time on Russian soil. “I’ll probably see you again very soon,” Trump said.

Rounding off a joint statement where he had to make no promises, no concessions and no compromises, Putin may have felt at ease enough to break into English – a rare occurrence. Chuckling, he looked at Trump and said: “Next time in Moscow.”

“Oh, that’s an interesting one,” Trump said. “I’ll get a little heat on that one, but I – I could see it possibly happening.”