Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin address world on Ukraine ceasefire talks

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s meeting was ‘extremely productive’ despite no deal being made to end the Russia-Ukraine war, however, Mr Putin stunned the US President at the end.

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have told the world they have had a positive start to talks on ending the war in Ukraine with the Russian leader causing the US President to ‘freeze’ at the end with a comment in English.

In a break from tradition, Mr Putin kicked off the press conference by thanking Mr Trump for inviting him to Alaska for the talks calling the gesture “neighbourly” and added that the meeting was “long overdue”.

The Russian leader also acknowledged that US-Russia relations had suffered in recent years.

Previously, when an American president has hosted a foreign counterpart, they have led the joint news conference.

But this time, the US leader followed his guest saying the pair had “made some headway” and “great progress” in their bilateral meeting.

Mr Trump added, however, “There’s is no deal until there’s a deal.”

Mr Putin said it was crucial that the primary causes of the war were eliminated before there was any ceasefire before he urged Ukrainian and European leaders not to interfere with “the emerging progress.”

Mr Putin said the meeting had been held in a “constructive and mutually respectful atmosphere” while Mr Trump described it as “an extremely productive meeting” and “many points were agreed to.”

Mr Trump appeared stunned when his Russian counterpart spoke in English at the end inviting the US leader to Moscow for another round of talks.

Mr Trump replied: “That’s an interesting one, I don’t know, I’ll get a bit of heat on that one”, before adding: “I could see it possibly happening.”

Going into the meeting this week, Mr Trump said there would be “severe consequences” if a resolution was not met.

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Originally published as Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin address world on Ukraine ceasefire talks