Ukraine ceasefire hopes dim after historic Alaska summit

US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met for a historic summit in Alaska, which began with a warm welcome and a flyover by jets but ended up making no headway in resolving the Ukraine conflict as the two leaders failed to reach any agreements on how to end the war.

- HTC and Agencies

After nearly three hours of talks at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Trump and Putin appeared before reporters for what was billed as a joint news conference — but they took no questions.

“We had an extremely productive meeting and many points were agreed to, there are just a very few that are left,” Trump said. “We didn’t get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there.”

Putin, who was on US soil for the first time in a decade, stressed that Moscow was committed to ensuring peace, but added a caveat: “All of Russia's legitimate concerns must be taken into account, and a fair balance in the security sphere in Europe and the world as a whole must be restored”.

“All the root causes of the crisis must be eliminated.”

Trump, who for years has balked at American support for Ukraine, had pledged confidently to bring about an end to the war on his first day back in the White House. Seven months later, after berating Zelensky in the Oval Office and stanching the flow of some US military assistance to Kyiv, Trump could not bring Putin to pause the fighting.

In a major shift, Trump also said he had agreed with Putin that the best way to end the war was to go straight to a peace settlement - not via a ceasefire, as Ukraine and its European allies, until now with US support, have been demanding.