The Big Story 

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin took the stage after an hours-long meeting, which will set the tone for future peace talks about Russia’s war in Ukraine.

© AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

The two world leaders met for about three hours alongside senior Russian and U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff, and two Russian aides – shifting from a previously planned one-on-one summit between Trump and Putin.

Afterward, they took to podiums in front of a blue backdrop that read “Pursuing Peace,” speaking to reporters in a highly anticipated joint appearance.

Putin began speaking first, in Russian, telling the audience that negotiations were held in a “respectful, constructive and mutually respectful atmosphere,” and that he agrees that the security of Ukraine should be ensured.

“I agree with Trump that the security of Ukraine must be secured, and of course, we are ready to work on that,” he said, adding that he hopes that the agreement reached between Washington and Moscow “will help us bring closer that goal and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine.”

Putin also proposed Moscow as the next location for any future meeting with Trump.

“That’s an interesting one, I’ll get a little heat on that one,” Trump replied. “But I could see it possibly happening.”

When it was his turn to speak, Trump spent a portion of his time lamenting that he has “always had a fantastic relationship” with Putin, but that it was impeded by investigations during his first term into Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

“We had many, many tough meetings, good meetings. We were interfered with by the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. I’ve made it a little bit tougher to deal with, but he understood it,” Trump said.

He also offered little as to whether anything was agreed to or not in the talks, noting that “there’s no deal until there’s a deal.”

“I will say that I believe we had a very productive meeting. 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 gotten there. We’ve made some headway. So, there’s no deal until there’s a deal,” the president said.

Ahead of the meeting, Trump said that he has a “good idea” of what Ukraine would like to see from the summit.

“It’s not for me to negotiate for Ukraine, but I think I have a pretty good idea what they’d like to see, and what’s good and what’s not good,” the president said during his interview with Fox News’ “Special Report” with host Bret Baier.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was excluded from the talks, said Russia has no intention to end the war soon.

“The war continues, and it is precisely because there is neither an order nor even a signal that Moscow is preparing to end this war. On the day of negotiations, they are killing as well. That speaks volumes,” he said in a video posted to X.

Read the full report at TheHill.com.

Welcome to The Hill’s Defense & National Security newsletter, I’m Ellen Mitchell — your guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond.

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