Fox News’ Rebekah Castor reports on the Russia-Ukraine peace talks and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s upcoming meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House next week.

New York Post

President Trump proclaimed Friday he and Russian President Vladimir Putin made “great progress” toward ending Moscow’s war on Ukraine after meeting for nearly three hours in Alaska — while cautioning “there’s no deal until there’s a deal.”

Trump, 79, and Putin, 72, didn’t publicly mention any details of a preliminary “understanding” toward ending the long-running war, with the US leader saying he would be calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and key European allies to discuss negotiations.

“There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them,” Trump said at a media availability where neither he nor Putin took any questions.

“I would say a couple of big ones that we haven’t quite got there, but we’ve made some headway,” he added. “So there’s no deal until there’s a deal. I will call up NATO in a little while, I will call up the various people that I think are appropriate, and, of course, call up President Zelensky and tell them about today’s meeting. It’s ultimately up to them.”

“Next time in Moscow,” Putin told Trump, who replied noncommittally, “I could see it possibly happening,” even though that venue would complicate reported US plans for a followup meeting with both Putin and Zelensky.

Putin, like Trump, described the meeting as productive and claimed repeatedly that the men had made an “understanding” without providing any details.

The strongman added that he hoped “today’s understanding will be the starting point not only for the solution of the Ukrainian issue, but also will help us bring back business-like and pragmatic relations between Russia and the US.”

“I would like to hope that the understanding that we’ve reached together will help us bring closer that goal and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine,” Putin went on. “We expect that Kyiv and European capitals will perceive that constructively and that they won’t throw a wrench in the works.”

Hours earlier, Trump had said that anything short of an immediate cease-fire would be unsatisfactory.

[. . .]

The US has bankrolled Kyiv’s defense against Russia with nearly $200 billion in congressionally authorized funds, beginning under then-President Joe Biden, whom Putin, echoing Trump’s public remarks, blamed for starting the war.

“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,” Putin attacked Biden.

“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.”