Putin said in exchange, he would be willing to freeze the current front lines in the rest of Ukraine — in the regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — and agree to a promise not to attack Ukraine or other European nations again.

But he didn’t back away from a demand to eliminate what Russia calls the “root causes” of the war in Ukraine — code for reducing the size of Kyiv’s military, abandoning its aspirations to join NATO and becoming a neutral state.

The details of Putin’s conditions emerged when Trump briefed European leaders on the talks as he was arriving back in Washington early this morning. Trump announced he believed an agreement could be reached quickly if Putin’s conditions were met, and that he would discuss the matter with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Monday, the officials noted.

European leaders also stated Trump voiced openness to providing US security guarantees for Ukraine once the war ends, though the specifics of what he’s willing to provide remained unclear.

Taken together, Trump’s recounting of the meeting provided little optimism among European officials, though leaders’ public responses to the summit were calibrated to avoid contradicting Trump.

Western European leaders have issued a statement backing Trump’s diplomatic push to end the Ukraine conflict – while also reaffirming their intention to further arm Kyiv and seek to bring it into NATO, the very issues Russia has cited as among the root causes of the conflict.

The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Poland, Finland, as well as the presidents of the EU Council and European Commission, praised the peace efforts in a statement published on Saturday, but vowed to continue providing military aid to Ukraine.

“Our support to Ukraine will continue. We are determined to do more to keep Ukraine strong in order to achieve an end to the fighting,” they emphasized.

The statement dismisses any notion of a territorial compromise, stressing that it was “up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory”.

The European leaders added that they were ready to provide Kyiv security guarantees via a so-called “coalition of the willing” – a France- and UK-led attempt to deploy a NATO “reassurance force” in Ukraine, an initiative that Moscow has staunchly opposed.

“No limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with third countries. Russia cannot have a veto against Ukraine’s pathway to EU and NATO,” the statement read.

The talks in Anchorage, which lasted nearly three hours, marked the first face-to-face meeting between Russian and American leaders since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022.

Speaking on Saturday, Putin said that his “visit was timely and quite useful.”

“The conversation was very frank, substantive and, in my opinion, it brings us closer to the necessary solutions,” he added.

“We talked about practically all areas of our interaction – first of all, of course, we discussed a possible resolution of the Ukraine crisis on a fair basis,” Putin detailed.

The Russian delegation “had the opportunity to convey our position once again, calmly and in detail,” as well as to discuss the “genesis, the causes of [the Ukraine] crisis.”

“Precisely the elimination of these root causes should underlie the [conflict] resolution,” Putin emphasized, adding that Moscow shares the Donald Trump administration’s desire to put an end to the hostilities as soon as possible, and ideally “by peaceful means.”

In an interview to Fox News following the Alaska summit, President Trump similarly described his talks with the Russian leader as “warm,” and that the two of them “agreed on a lot.”

According to Trump, Washington and Moscow have come “pretty close to the end” of the Ukraine conflict, though “Ukraine has to agree” to any potential peace deal. The US president acknowledged that there remained “one or two pretty significant items” to work out, but expressed optimism that they would be resolved soon enough.

In the wake of his negotiations with Putin, Trump seems to have sided with Moscow in holding the view that the conflict should be ended through a permanent agreement rather than a mere ceasefire.

Ukraine and its European backers have for months insisted on a temporary cessation of hostilities as a precondition for peace talks.

While Russia never ruled out the idea completely, it has pointed to serious obstacles to the plan, arguing that it would allow Kiev to receive more Western weapons and recoup its battered units.

The Kremlin has insisted that Ukraine must commit to staying out of NATO, as well as recognize the new territorial reality on the ground. This includes the status of the regions of Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye, all of which voted to become parts of Russia.

Earlier, Zelensky said he will meet Trump in DC on Monday, after having a “long and substantive conversation” with the American leader and later with European leaders to debrief the Alaska summit.

“Ukraine reaffirms its readiness to work with maximum effort to achieve peace. President Trump informed about his meeting with the Russian leader and the main points of their discussion. It is important that America’s strength has an impact on the development of the situation,” Zelensky announced in a statement Saturday – his first since the meeting in Alaska which he was excluded from.

“On Monday, I will meet with President Trump in Washington, D.C., to discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war. I am grateful for the invitation,” he added.

The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Poland, Finland, as well as the presidents of the EU Council and European Commission, praised the peace efforts in a statement published on Saturday, but vowed to continue providing military aid to Kiev.

“Our support to Ukraine will continue. We are determined to do more to keep Ukraine strong in order to achieve an end to the fighting,” they said.

The statement rejects any notion of a territorial compromise, stressing that it was “up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory.”

The European leaders added that they were ready to provide Kiev security guarantees via a so-called “coalition of the willing” – a France- and UK-led effort to deploy a NATO “reassurance force” in Ukraine, an initiative that Moscow has staunchly opposed.

“No limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with third countries. Russia cannot have a veto against Ukraine’s pathway to EU and NATO,” the statement read.

The Trump-Putin summit in Alaska concluded without a peace deal and saw Trump abruptly abandon his previous demands for a ceasefire and threats of “severe consequences” if Russia refused. Trump is now championing a rapid peace deal as the best way forward and will discuss the details with Zelensky and European officials at the White House on Aug. 18.

Russia’s rejection of all ceasefire proposals “complicates the situation,” Zelensky said on Telegram on Sunday.

“If they do not have the will to implement a simple order to stop the attacks, it may take a great deal of effort to get Russia to implement something much more significant, namely peaceful coexistence with its neighbors for decades to come,” he wrote.

Zelensky added that he and his team were continuing to hold talks with Ukraine’s international partners throughout the day and weekend in preparation for the meeting with Trump on Monday.

“I am grateful for the invitation.”

“It is important that everyone agrees that a conversation at the leadership level is needed to clarify all the details and determine what steps are necessary and will work,” he stated.

Trump has said that following the meeting with Ukrainian and European leaders at the White House, the next step will be to host trilateral talks among himself, Zelensky, and Putin. Trump reportedly wants to hold the trilateral meeting as early as Aug. 22, according to Axios.

Putin has not publicly agreed to participate in a meeting with Zelensky.

Ukrainian and European officials have consistently called for a complete cessation of hositilities as a precondition for good-faith peace negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow. The Kremlin has rejected these demands at every turn, insisting that Ukraine first make extreme concessions — such as the dissolution of its army and the refusal to accept foreign military aid.

The results of the Alaska Summit showed no indication that Putin had abandoned his maximalist objectives in Ukraine.