President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday wrapped an ‘extremely productive’ summit aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, though what the next steps are remains unclear.
Putin, who spoke first in a joint press conference held by the two world leaders, described the talks as a “constructive atmosphere of mutual respect.”
The Kremlin chief said an “agreements” had been reached, but neither leader expanded on any details relating to the talks, and they did not take questions from reporters.
The talks wrapped after just three hours, well over an hour short of original estimates and more than three hours shorter than the Kremlin believed the discussions would take.
“Today’s agreement will be the starting point not only for the solution in Ukraine, but will also help us bring back business…between Russia and the U.S.,” Putin said.
Putin described the nation of Ukraine as a “brotherly nation” but continued to say that the “primary roots” of the conflict need to be “eliminated” – terminology he has previously used to justify his illegal 2022 invasion.
Trump then described the summit as “extremely productive” and said, “many points” were agreed to, but he also did not expand on where agreements were made.
But Trump also said the sides are “not there yet” in advancing a peace deal.
“There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them, I would say. A couple of big ones that we haven’t quite gotten there, but we’ve made some headway,” Trump said.
“There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” he added.
Trump said he would call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO leaders to discuss the content of his discussions with Putin.
Trump has made clear he hoped the next step would be for Zelenskyy and Putin to meet in person, though it is unclear if progress was made in making this meeting happen.
