Trump says ‘no deal until there’s a deal’

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that his long-awaited meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska ended without any formal agreement, after nearly three hours of talks centered on the war in Ukraine.

“There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” Trump told reporters, acknowledging that no ceasefire or binding commitments were reached.

The U.S. president described the discussions as “very productive” and claimed “some great progress” had been made, but offered no specifics. “We didn’t get there,” he added, before leaving without taking questions from the gathered press.

The summit, held at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson in Anchorage, was part of Trump’s effort to encourage direct negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv. While stressing that he was not negotiating on Ukraine’s behalf, Trump said he planned to arrange direct talks between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Putin expressed hope that all sides would respect what had been discussed and hinted at the possibility of meeting again, but no follow-up summit has been scheduled.

For Washington’s allies in Europe and the Middle East — many of whom have a direct stake in regional stability and energy markets — the meeting’s failure to produce a breakthrough underscores the difficulty of reaching a negotiated end to the conflict.