During a press conference in Alaska on Friday, August 15, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Donald Trump and reiterated claims regarding the prevention of the Ukraine conflict.
This marked the first in-person meeting between Putin and Trump since 2018, following days of anticipation.
The two leaders have been engaged in discussions about a potential peace agreement to address the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Although no formal agreement has been reached, both consider the talks to be “progress.”
Meeting in Anchorage on Friday, the two presidents held a lengthy session about a possible peace deal. After more than three hours, they held a brief 12-minute conference for the press.
Trump remarked, “We didn’t get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there.”
He continued, “I’m going to start making a few phone calls and tell them what happened. But we had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to, and there are just a very few that are left.”
During the conference, Putin seemed to compliment Trump by making a remark about past US leadership.
He suggested that if Trump had won the 2020 election, the conflict with Ukraine might have been avoided.
Putin, through a translator, criticized Joe Biden, saying, “I’d like to remind you that in 2022, during the last contact with the previous administration, I tried to convince my previous American colleague that the situation should not be brought to the point of no return when it would come to hostilities.
“I said it quite directly back then that it’s a big mistake.”
Putin added, “Today, when President Trump [said] that if he was the president back then, there would be no war. And I’m quite sure that it would indeed be so, I can confirm that.”
This mirrors Trump’s own statements made in 2022 on his platform, Truth Social.
The former President asserted that there would have been no Ukraine conflict, and in 2023, he claimed he could end the war in “24 hours.”
Prior to their anticipated meeting, Trump candidly spoke about his ability to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine.
He said, “I’ll tell you what. I’ve had that conversation with him. I’ve had a lot of good conversations with him then I go home and I see that a rocket hit a nursing home or a rocket hit an apartment building, and people are laying dead in the streets.”
He continued, “So, I guess the answer to that is no, because I’ve had this conversation. I want to end the war. It’s Biden’s war, but I want to end it.”
Trump expressed his determination to end the conflict, saying, “I’ll be very proud to end this war, along with the five other wars I ended. But, I guess the answer to that is probably no.”
However, he warned that if Russia refused to pursue peace, the repercussions would be ‘very severe.’
“Economically severe. It will be very severe,” he stated. “I’m not doing this for my health, okay, I don’t need it. I’d like to focus on our country, but I’m doing this to save a lot of lives.”
“Yeah, very severe.”