Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Early Saturday, US President Donald Trump held phone talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European heads to discuss his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a European Commission spokesperson.
After the meeting, US President Donald Trump stated that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin achieved “great progress,” but they did not reach an agreement on the Ukraine war during yesterday’s summit.
According to the EU spokesperson, the US president spoke for more than an hour with Zelensky, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
The Ukrainian presidency also stated that Trump initially spoke with Zelensky, followed by the other European leaders joining the call. The White House also confirmed the call.
President Donald Trump had a long discussion with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, while flying home to Washington.
What did Trump and Putin discuss during the Alaska summit?
As reported, the two world leaders met and greeted one another with smiles and a handshake while they met on the taxiway at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. Their meeting started shortly before 11:30 a.m. local time and ended about two and a half hours later.
The two leaders were accompanied by two advisers each: Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff on the U.S. side, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and foreign-policy adviser Yuri Ushakov joined President Donald Trump.
After their two-and-a-half-hour meeting, Trump, during a joint press conference with Putin, committed to calling both Zelensky and NATO officials. “I’ll of course call our President Zelensky and inform him about today’s meeting,” Trump stated.
In a Fox News interview, Trump shifted responsibility to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to negotiate a ceasefire, mentioning that a meeting between Zelensky and Putin would be arranged soon. “They both want me there,” he stated.
Both leaders have departed Alaska after approximately six hours on site. While Putin described the discussions positively, neither leader took questions following their statements to reporters.
How does this summit compare with the 2019 G20 meeting?
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin last met in 2019 at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. Their meeting was on the sidelines of the summit, where Trump said they had a “tremendous discussion” about a number of issues, including trade and election interference.
They also discussed election interference; when asked by reporters, Trump, in a joking fashion, told Putin not to “meddle in the election.”
