Putin calls Alaska talks with Trump “frank” as Ukraine war rages

Russian President Vladimir Putin has described his talks with US President Donald Trump in Alaska as “frank and informative” saying both expressed a shared interest in ending the war in Ukraine.

Upon his return to Moscow, Putin on Saturday convened top Russian officials at the Kremlin to brief them in televised remarks about the meeting.

He told them the talks had brought Russia and the United States “closer to the necessary decisions” to end the war in Ukraine “on a fair basis”.

“We had the opportunity to talk about the genesis, the causes of this crisis. It is precisely the elimination of these root causes that should be the basis for the settlement,” he said.

Putin has justified Russia’s invasion of Ukraine saying it was a security threat to his country and has said “the elimination of these root causes should be the basis for a settlement.” .

“We, of course, respect the position of the American administration, which sees the need for a speedy end to military actions," he told top officials.

He added that Russia would like to “to move on to resolving all issues by peaceful means”.

Trump failed to secure an agreement from Putin to end Russia’s war in Ukraine on Friday, falling short in his most significant move yet to stop the bloodshed.

The US president had pledged confidently to bring about an end to the war on his first day back in the White House.

Seven months later, after berating Zelenskyy in the Oval Office and stanching the flow of some US military assistance to Kyiv, Trump could not bring Putin even to pause the fighting.

Trump had offered Putin both a carrot and a stick, issuing threats of punishing economic sanctions on Russia while also extending a warm welcome at a US military base in Anchorage.

But he appeared to walk away without any concrete progress on ending the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year.

Instead, he handed Putin long-sought recognition on the international stage, after years of Western efforts to make him a pariah over the war and his crackdown on dissent.

Trump is due to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington on Monday.