Hope and disappointment as world reacts to Trump-Putin summit

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – It was a summit thrown together just a week after it was first announced, marked by cinematic flourishes as the two presidents arrived at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, before walking a red carpet together as bomber and fighter jets roared overhead.

Both sides billed it as an important meeting. But while the staging appeared to have been readied on time, the diplomatic script seemed not to have been written in advance, and no clear results or major announcements emerged from the talks.

The extensive travel required to the military site outside Anchorage lasted far longer than the actual talks. While a banner behind Presidents Trump and Putin at a press conference after their discussions read “Pursuing Peace,” the U.S. leader never once mentioned the word “peace” in his remarks.

Trump kept his statement uncharacteristically short, and did not appear particularly happy with what had transpired in his meeting with Putin.

“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 got there, but we’ve made some headway,” said Trump, without elaborating on the details.

Ahead of the summit, he’d said he wanted to walk away with a ceasefire — although occasionally in the days leading up to the meeting, he also sought to lower expectations by saying it was just about feeling things out, or setting the table for a second meeting.

The reactions from leaders and legislators worldwide —
with the notable exception of those in Russia — expressed some hope, but often disappointment too.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was left out of the Alaska talks, said he will meet Trump in Washington on Monday to discuss next steps toward ending the war.

U.S. legislators weigh in with criticism, cautious optimism

Trump again postponed stronger sanctions on Russia, despite Putin’s refusal to publicly commit to a ceasefire with Ukraine.

“I think I don’t have to think about that now,” Trump said when asked about this during an interview with Fox News after the meeting.

Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the ranking Democrat on the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, said Trump appeared “to have been played yet again by Vladimir Putin.”

In a statement released by her office, Shaheen said Trump had “rolled out a red carpet and warmly greeted a murderous dictator on American soil and reports indicate he got nothing concrete in return.”

Shaheen said she was “encouraged” that Trump had promised to debrief Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as European allies, but also voiced impatience.

“Enough is enough. If President Trump won’t act, Congress must do so decisively by passing crushing sanctions.”

Trump told Fox News that he expected a trilateral summit, involving both Putin and Zelenskyy, to happen soon. Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who has been willing to stifle Trump’s legislative efforts over the years, had expressed skepticism about the meeting earlier this week.

But she wrote on social media that she was “cautiously optimistic about the signals that some level of progress was made” and said it was “encouraging to hear both presidents reference future meetings, which I hope will include Ukraine.”

South Carolinian Republican Senator Lindsey Graham echoed those sentiments, but suggested the alternatives would be disastrous for Putin and Russia.

“If there’s a trilateral meeting between President @realdonaldtrump, President Zelensky and Putin, then I am cautiously optimistic that this war will end well before Christmas,” he wrote on X. “If the meeting doesn’t happen, I think President Trump may deliver severe consequences to Putin and those who buy his oil and gas.”

Trump passes ball to Ukraine, and Zelenskyy

After the summit, Trump also told Fox News it was now up to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “get it done” and said he would tell Zelenskyy to “make the deal.”

“Look: Russia is a very big power, and they’re not,” Trump said in the interview.

But the reaction from lawmakers in Kyiv was far from enthusiastic.

“It seems Putin has bought himself more time,” Oleksiy Honcharenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker wrote on Telegram. “No cease-fire or any kind of de-escalation has been agreed upon.”

In a post on X, Zelenskyy said he had accepted Trump’s invitation to Washington on Monday, “to discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war.”

He went on to emphasize the importance of European involvement to ensure reliable security guarantees alongside the U.S., noting “positive signals from the American side regarding participation in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security.”

He added that Ukraine continues to coordinate with all partners and thanked everyone assisting in the effort.

Reaction among Russia delegation

At a time when President Putin is unable to visit more than 100 nations, out of fear he could be arrested thanks to warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the trip to Alaska highlighted American exceptionalism. The United States is not party to the treaties governing the ICC.

U.S. leaders have repeatedly criticized the court’s actions, and have recently sanctioned officials there, due to its actions against Israel. The summit thus provided an opening for the Russian leader to once again stand on a global stage with another world leader. He spoke at length during the press conference with Trump, referencing an agreement the two men had made that would “pave the path towards peace in Ukraine” — without, again, disclosing any details.

“We expect that Kyiv and European capitals will perceive that constructively and that they won’t throw a wrench in the works,” Putin added, a jab at the role many European leaders have played in supporting Zelenskyy in his dealings with the Trump White House in recent months.

He said he hoped European leaders would “not make any attempts to use some backroom dealings to conduct provocations to torpedo the nascent progress.”

Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who had travelled to Alaska too, described the meeting between Trump and Putin as “very positive,” and explained that there had been no need for either leader to field questions from the small army of assembled journalists, because their statements had been “exhaustive,” according to state-controlled RIA Novosti.

The Russian spokesman said the Alaska conversation could help the two men “confidently move forward together” along a path that would find options for peace.

Europeans remain key to a ceasefire

In Europe, where leaders had worked hard in recent days to strengthen Ukraine’s diplomatic position in the talks, despite Zelenskyy’s absence, there was a degree of anger among lawmakers in some countries.

Marko Mihkelson, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian Parliament, wrote on social media that the meeting “was no surprise. Putin wanted to humiliate the US — and he succeeded.”

He said Trump needed to place “real pressure on Russia” if he wanted to transform a weak hand into a winning one.

The comments by Putin about Europe’s potential to block progress consisted of “gaslighting and veiled threats,” wrote Lithuania’s defense minister Dovile Sakaliene on X, noting that in the hours before the meeting, Russian forces had continued to “bomb civilians in Ukraine.

“The Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky expressed gratitude for Trump’s attempts to forge a peace deal, but also warned about propaganda efforts by the Kremlin. “The problem is Russian imperialism,” he wrote on X. “If Putin were serious about peace talks, he would not have been attacking Ukraine all day.”