Trump-Putin summit live: US president hails ‘successful’ meeting despite no deal as Zelensky heads to Washington
Volodymyr Zelensky is due to head to Washington DC on Monday to meet with Donald Trump in the wake of his meeting with Vladimir Putin, which the U.S. President hailed as “very successful”.
The highly anticipated summit between Trump and the Russian President has ended without a ceasefire deal or an agreement on pausing Moscow’s war in Ukraine, despite both leaders describing the talks as productive.
A nearly three-hour summit in Alaska on Friday saw both leaders stating they had made progress on unspecified issues, with Trump adding that “we didn’t get there” on one of the “most significant” sticking points.
Putin said the negotiations were “held in a constructive atmosphere” suggested they meet again in Moscow, with Trump adding he’d “get a little heat on that one, but I could see it possibly happening.”
The warm greeting and praise heaped on each other is likely to have sparked concern amongst Zelenskyy and European allies, with Putin repeating Moscow’s long-held position that what Russia claims to be the “root causes” of the conflict must be eliminated to achieve peace..
This is likely to include his demands for Ukraine’s formal renunciation of Nato membership, as well as agreeing to demilitarisation, new elections, no foreign military involvement and recognition of Russian sovereignty over the occupied Ukrainian regions.
