Donald Trump said Friday in an interview with Fox News that an agreement to end the war in Ukraine now depends on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “An agreement must be reached,” he told Zelenskyy after his “productive” meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
The press conference following the meeting did not reveal any details about the Russian and American presidents' plans for Ukraine. And none of the six participants—Trump was accompanied by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Foreign Policy Advisor Yuri Ushakov supported Putin—answered questions from the 200 or so journalists in attendance.
Donald Trump did, however, say a little more to Fox News just before boarding Air Force One. He spoke of a “very good” and “very warm” meeting, which he rated “ten out of ten.” However, there was “one big issue” on which they could not agree, he said, without going into details. But “we are pretty close to an agreement. Now it's up to Ukraine to accept. Maybe they will say no,” he said. He concluded by saying that the next step would be a discussion with Moscow and Kyiv.
The Kremlin also described the meeting as “very positive.” “This is the kind of conversation that allows us to move forward in search of opportunities for a peaceful solution,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state-controlled news agencies TASS, Interfax, and RIA Novosti.
