Vladimir Putin has said his visit to Alaska was “useful and timely” and that the conversation with Donald Trump was “sincere and substantive”. It comes as Ukraine’s military reports that they have advanced up to 2km on the northeastern Sumy front. Follow live below.
Saturday 16 August 2025 20:07, UK
We reported earlier on the first comments Vladimir Putin made on US-Russia talks in Alaska (see post at 4.21pm).
Now, the Russian president’s office has issued Putin’s full statement which he gave to senior officials.
Here is the Kremlin leader’s full statement…
I asked you to get into a meeting to inform you about the outcomes of our delegation’s visit to Alaska, the United States.<\/i>
I would like to note from the outset that the visit was timely and quite useful. <\/i>
We discussed our interactions in virtually all their aspects with a focus, of course, on achieving a fair resolution of the Ukraine crisis. <\/i>
We certainly had an opportunity to discuss the origins and causes of this crisis, which we did. It is the removal of these root causes that must underlie the settlement.<\/i>
We did not have direct talks at this level for a long time. Let me reiterate: We had a chance to convey our position in a calm and detailed manner. <\/i>
We definitely respect the US administration’s position which wants the hostilities to stop as soon as possible. So do we, and we would like to move forward with settling all issues by peaceful means.<\/i>
The conversation was very frank and substantive which, in my view, moves us closer towards making necessary decisions.<\/i>
Now I will give you a detailed overview of the conversation. I am ready to answer your questions if you have any.<\/i>
After sitting down with Donald Trump in Alaska yesterday, Vladimir Putin’s plane was escorted out of the area by US fighter jets.
He had until two weeks ago faced the threat of imminent severe sanctions but by the end of his meeting Trump had adopted the Russian position that peace moves should concentrate on a final peace deal rather than a ceasefire.
You can watch footage of US jets escorting Putin’s plane below…
Ukraine’s military is reporting that they have advanced up to 2km on the northeastern Sumy front.
The Ukrainian General Staff has said “zones of continuous enemy fire damage are being maintained” and Ukrainian troops are repelling Russian forces.
“Active operations aimed at liberating Ukrainian land continue,” the military has said on Telegram.
Donald Trump has told Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Vladimir Putin offered to freeze the frontlines elsewhere if Kyiv agreed to withdraw from the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, a person familiar with the matter has told Reuters.
Trump and US envoy Steve Witkoff told Ukraine’s leader that Putin said there could be no ceasefire before that happened, and that Putin could pledge not to launch any new aggression against Ukraine as part of an arrangement.
We brought you reports earlier from the Financial Times which reported that Putin had told Trump that he could relax some territorial gains in Ukraine in exchange for the eastern Donetsk region (see post at 3.40pm).
The Russian leader reportedly told Trump he could freeze the rest of the frontline if his core demands were met.
In exchange for the Donetsk region, Putin said he would freeze the frontline in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia and not launch new attacks to take more of the territory.
The leaders of eight Nordic-Baltic nations have said that they “remain steadfast” in their support for Ukraine and to the efforts by Donald Trump to end the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
The leaders of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden said in a statement that achieving peace between Ukraine and Russia requires a ceasefire and security guarantees for Ukraine.
“We welcome President Trump’s statement that the US is prepared to participate in security guarantees. No limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with other countries,” the statement said.
“Russia has no veto over Ukraine’s pathway to the EU and NATO.”
The leaders went on to demand that Russia “urgently returns” children who have been abducted from occupied territories, as well as prisoners of war and civilian prisoners.
“As long as Russia continues its killing we will continue to strengthen sanctions and wider economic measures to put pressure on Russia\u2019s war economy,” the statement added.
Trump has said that he had agreed with Putin that a peace deal should be sought without the prior ceasefire that Ukraine and its European allies, until now with US support, have demanded.
The US is ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said.
Speaking to the German broadcaster ZDF, Merz said: “And the good news is that America is ready to participate in such security guarantees and is not leaving it to the Europeans alone.”
Looking at Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s upcoming trip to the White House, Merz said after this a three-way meeting between Zelenskyy, Putin and Trump and should be held as soon as possible with the aim of reaching a peace agreement.
“If that works out, it’s worth more than a ceasefire,” he said.
Merz said Trump had indicated that Russia seemed ready to negotiate based on the frontlines of the conflict, rather than the borders of Ukrainian regions it claims.
“This is a huge difference because Russia is claiming territories that it hasn’t occupied yet,” he said.
Merz also said Zelenskyy would tomorrow talk to European leaders who would help him prepare for the meeting.
“We’ll give a few good pieces of advice,” he said.<\/p>\n
By Amanda Akass<\/a>, political correspondent<\/b> It should be noted that Putin earlier spoke of the need to eliminate the “root causes” of the conflict.
Sir Keir Starmer is straining his diplomatic sinews to simultaneously praise Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine, while repeating calls for a completely different approach – one which ends the cosy bonhomie with Vladimir Putin, threatens the Russians with sanctions, and puts the Ukrainians back centre stage.
If that’s a message which feels like quite a stretch in writing, in person, during this morning’s call of international leaders, it must have been even more awkward.
Donald Trump’s public dismissal of the Europeans’ previous calls for a ceasefire – after his tete-a-tete with Putin – has only highlighted divisions.
Of course, the prime minister and his European allies have no choice but to keep their criticism of the Alaskan summit implicit, not explicit.
Read more here…
Vladimir Putin says his visit to Alaska was “useful and timely”.
The Russian leader also says the conversation he had with Donald Trump was “sincere and substantive”, Russia’s TASS news agency reports.
Putin also told the officials that Russia respects the US’s position on the Ukraine conflict.<\/p>\n
That phrase essentially means Moscow has no intention of watering down its red lines.
For Vladimir Putin, the very fact that he was in Alaska to speak with Donald Trump represented a victory.
The Kremlin leader has been ostracised by Western leaders since the start of the war, and just a week earlier had faced a threat of new sanctions from Trump.
Here, Sky’s Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett<\/b> <\/a>takes a look at how Putin appeared during the summit…
Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump that he could relax some territorial gains in Ukraine in exchange for the eastern Donetsk region, the Financial Times<\/a> reports.
The Russian leader told Trump he could freeze the rest of the frontline if his core demands were met, the FT says, citing four people with direct knowledge of the talks.
In exchange for the Donetsk region, Putin said he would freeze the frontline in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia and not launch new attacks to take more of the territory.
The move would hand Moscow full control of a territory it has occupied since 2014.
But sources familiar with Zelenskyy\u2019s thinking have said he would not agree to hand over Donetsk, but that he would be open to discussing land with Trump in Washington.
How much of the Donbas does Russia occupy?<\/b>
Russia controls about 88% of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, including all of the Luhansk region and 75% of the Donetsk region.
About 6,600 sq km is still controlled by Ukraine but Russia has been focusing most of its energy along the front in Donetsk, pushing towards the last remaining major cities.
Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions broke away from Ukrainian government control in 2014 and proclaimed themselves independent “people’s republics”.
Putin in 2022 recognised them as independent states just days before the invasion of Ukraine.
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