LIVE: Trump and Putin speak after Ukraine war summit l ABC News Live coverage

Alaska with all the details on how today will look.

Chris John.

President Trump is wheels up heading west as Vladimir Putin flies east, drawing the world's attention to Anchorage, Alaska. Today's high stakes summit will focus on ending the war in Ukraine, now three and a half years since Russia invaded.

Trump told reporters on Air Force One this morning there will be consequences if Putin doesn't appear interested in a peace deal.

Yes, it will be very severe. I'm not doing this for my health, OK? I don't need it. I'd like to focus on our country, but I'm doing this to save a lot of lives.

In recent weeks, Russia has only escalated its attacks. July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since May 2022. And overnight, Ukraine's Air Force says Russia launched new missile and drone strikes, hitting 13 locations. Trump said he believes Putin is using violence as a negotiating tool.

In his mind, that helps him make a better deal, if they can continue the killing. I think it hurts him, but I'll be talking to him about it later.

Ukrainian President Zelensky, who will not be in the room because Putin insisted on a one-on-one with Trump, is calling for a ceasefire first and then negotiations. The Ukrainian president, backed by European leaders, also demands security guarantees. Trump admits he thinks there's a 25% chance the meeting fails, but if successful,

he says he wants to quickly bring Putin and Zelensky together, possibly even bringing Zelensky here to Alaska.

Well our historic coverage continues right now. We're going to bring in our Christian Cordero, who's there in Anchorage. Also our Washington managing editor, Catherine Falders. Patrick Rievel is with us out of London. National security and defense analyst Mick Mulroy joins me and our contributor and associate editor at the Washington Post, Mary Jordan. Great to

have all of you, Chris. John, let's start with you. Trump is expected to land in Alaska at any moment. Kind of give us a feel for how the day is going to look. We've already seen the red carpet is there waiting for him flanked by F 22 Raptors.

Right. I think the red carpet makes it real right here. I mean, anticipation has been building, but seeing that sight, knowing that these two world leaders are expected to touch down in the next hour or so, and imagining what it will be like for the first time ever to see Vladimir Putin in this kind of a setting with Trump walking the red carpet right here on U.S. soil,

his first visit to the U.S. in a decade. As for the rest of the day, it really is kind of a wait-and-see game. We know that the two sides will meet in their respective spaces. We imagine that there will be a conversation between Putin and Trump directly, and then perhaps a larger one with each of their delegations. And one of the really big signs that we're looking for of how the conversation is going is what we see on the other side of it. Will President Trump be walking out to a press conference on his own?

Will he walk out with Vladimir Putin next to him and have a joint presser? It would be remarkable if that were the case. And it would be an indication, Kira, that there has been some progress made in these peace talks.

Well, Catherine, aboard Air Force One, Trump actually told our Rachel Scott that land swaps will definitely be discussed today. Let's take a listen.

They'll be discussed, but I've got to let Ukraine make that decision. And I think they'll make a proper decision. But I'm not here to negotiate for Ukraine. I'm here to get them at a table. And I think you have two sides. Look, Vladimir Putin wanted to take all of Ukraine.

If I wasn't president, he would right now be taking all of Ukraine.

But he's not going to do it.

As you heard Trump say, it's Ukraine's decision to make. But Zelensky isn't even attending today's meeting.

So how is that even possible?

It's a good question. And we'll see, obviously obviously what happens after that meeting. Of course Trump has teased that depending on how the meeting goes there could be a trilateral meeting between the three leaders but we obviously know Kira about Trump's frankly obsession in some cases with land swaps with Russia. We know this is unpopular in Ukraine. We surely know how Zelensky feels about land swaps but we know that this is something that Trump has been focused on behind the scenes.

You recall just last week he was focused on this. He said that he was – Trump said that he was bothered by Zelensky saying he needs constitutional approval to give up territory to Russia. So it will be interesting to see exactly how the president believes that this is Zelensky's decision. He thinks he'll make the proper decision, Trump said, but, again, didn't elaborate on

exactly what he meant by that. I'm sure following the meeting, he will share what, if any, discussion he has with Putin on this topic. Of course, he says that it will be discussed. So we'll see exactly what they discuss as it relates to that following the bilateral

meeting. Patrick, you've done some of the best reporting for us. You've been covering this war from the very start giving us such great perspective. I give us your thoughts about today's summit do you think this is a victory for Putin no matter what.

Yeah, I mean we with that in Kiev when Vladimir Putin invaded 3 years ago. I think barring a huge surprise this is going to be a win for Vladimir Putin and I think we're seeing the Russians already trying to set the tone. We saw Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arriving wearing a USSR t-shirt. I think in general they're trying to present this as a triumph and they have quite a lot of reason to do

that. I think also we will see that President Trump and President Putin both have reasons to want to make this summit appear successful and it has to be said already that in some ways they are negotiating already on Putin's terms. I think what we will also see is Vladimir Putin trying to basically overload President Trump with economic opportunities, ideas for cooperation, as well as negotiating on things like nuclear arms control which are all things he started to hint about. I think they will try to basically

sideline Ukraine as an issue and try and persuade the president that there's a lot of things they could do together besides Ukraine. But I think going into this, it will be difficult for Vladimir Putin to do nothing on Ukraine, to show no compromise whatsoever, because that would clearly make the president look weak. And he has made clear that something has to come from this.

I think what we heard from President Zelensky earlier today is that the main thing he hopes can come from this summit is a meeting between himself, President Trump, and Vladimir Putin. And if they can achieve that, I think that would at least be a small bit of progress. But I think really what we're seeing here today

is a test of whether Vladimir Putin now is at all interested in trying to at least de-escalate this war, ease the fighting, and whether President Trump, if Vladimir Putin is not willing to do that, if he can see through it or not.

Kira?

A test. And should he be trusted? Mick, what do you think, considering just history itself?

Does the U.S. — can the U.S. trust Vladimir Putin? Can Trump trust Vladimir Putin?

No, he cannot be trusted. He's proven that over and over again. You know, the old adage during the Cold War was trust but verify. So there has to be some verification of that. I think in order for this to be a success, there has to be a ceasefire. Everything's obviously not going to be worked out, but the ceasefire is needed to actually get into the weeds on how this would work long term. The idea of land swaps is very complicated. We're talking about it as if it's just territory. But remember, there's Ukrainians that live on that territory. They

would have to be resettled and rehoused. There's a lot of very complicated issues, but success would be, I think, a ceasefire. If there is an agreement to have another meeting, per se, that's just a success for President Putin and Russia. It would not be a success for the US and certainly not the Ukraine. So a lot is riding on what happens today. These other issues that Patrick was just talking about, nuclear arms, etc., that is likely something that Putin's throwing out there because he knows he's really under the gun

to give President Trump a reason for doing this. Those are all side issues. The issue today is Ukraine, and hopefully we can see them come out together, which I think would be indicative that they've reached a ceasefire agreement

or something that's very positive.

And Mary, the human toll of this war, thousands upon thousands of people have been killed, something the president keeps bringing up when talking about a potential peace deal. And you and I have talked a lot about the fact that Melania Trump has also reminded the president of that

every time they talk about Ukraine. a lot about the fact that Melania Trump has also reminded the president of that every

time they talk about Ukraine.

And he's listening to her on that for sure.

And her, you know, Melania keeps her unit very tight, right? And her father barely speaks English. He speaks Slovenian. Her native language is Slovenia. She didn't come to America until she was in her twenties. Overwhelmingly, from where she grew up, people are on Ukraine's side. They don't trust Putin.

They say he's a 3D chess player. You think, don't listen to what he says. And so there's a lot of worry going into this that Putin, who has been in charge of Russia for now two decades, a master manipulator trained in that, is meeting Donald Trump, who by all accounts is not up to speed in that level of foreign affairs as other world leaders and certainly as Putin. But you never know, maybe Trump's unpredictable deal-making that he wants to do, and he clearly wants to make peace. And I think whether you like Donald Trump or you don't, everyone pretty much agrees

that the killing has to stop. I mean, kids, mothers, young people, thousands of innocent civilians have been killed in the last three years since Russia invaded Ukraine. And everybody has to agree, whatever their politics are, whatever they think about Donald Trump, that they want there to be an agreement that Ukraine, the country that was invaded, agrees to and that Russia agrees to.

We need peace. That's eyes on the prize. You know, you talk about stopping the killing, thinking about the fact that you know what it's like to be in the Oval, Mary. And when I was there last, the picture of Ronald Reagan, it's the biggest presidential portrait, closest to the president, right to the left of his desk. He talks about Ronald Reagan a lot. How can we ever forget how tough Ronald Reagan was with the whole Mr. Gorbachev, tear that

wall down. I mean, Mary, could we see President Trump channeling one of his heroes, one of his mentors, Ronald Reagan, and saying, Mr. Putin, stop the killing?

Well, he put that photo up himself. He ordered it up in the Oval Office. And he has his eye on his legacy. He wants to be seen in history as the ultimate dealmaker. And he is pushing this. And so whether it's been too hastily done, whether it was a mistake not to have Zelensky

there, lots of criticism. But what's going to matter is, does the killing stop? And is there an agreement that the key all sides agree to, not just Russia, but Ukraine too? sides agree to not just Russia but Ukraine too and he wants it because he's

very concerned consumed some say by his legacy. So let me follow up on that Mary

about you know just hammering this point that that the president really wants to stop the killing here. Even Hillary Clinton not one of President Trump's closest friends as we know, said on a podcast this morning, she said on Raging Moderates podcast, that she would actually nominate President Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize if he could end the killing in Ukraine. What do you make of that?

I mean, I think that says it all, that you don't have to agree with everything that Donald Trump does. This is a rare time that if you pulled most Americans, they want the war to end. In addition to the thousands of civilians who've been killed by the drone strikes and the bombs and and the tens of billions of dollars that the U.S. has spent on arms and military aid in three years. In addition to that, there are hundreds of thousands of soldiers, Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers, have been killed. Hundreds of thousands. Neither country

is giving the exact number. They're not divulging that. But the U.N., the U.K., the U.S., and most Western countries say it's in the hundreds of thousands. So that's why you have Hillary Clinton saying that. We're far away from where the bombing is happening, but in Europe they're not. This is visceral. It is the biggest crisis abroad and no matter if you like Donald

Trump or not, if he's the guy that makes peace happen, it's a big deal. And so Hillary Clinton will do what she said, nominate him for a peace prize.

Well, it's getting more and more interesting, isn't it? Mary, thank you so much. I know Mary, Patrick, Meg, Catherine, Christiane, you're with me throughout the afternoon. We are still waiting for President Trump's plane to land there in Anchorage. We will take it live as soon as it happens. And we will all be chatting soon. Thank you so much. Also straight

ahead. The other big story we're talking about the first hurricane in the Atlantic. We are tracking it. Where Aaron is headed next.

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Yes, we have our first Atlantic hurricane of the 2025 season Aaron picking up steam and is now expected to gain strength and pass just north of the leeward Caribbean islands tomorrow that means heavy rain expected for all those bad bunny fans in Puerto Rico and also beachgoers up and down the East Coast should be on the lookout for rip currents. Our senior meteorologist Melissa

Griffiths track it all for us all right, what's the latest on Hurricane Aaron.

Kira Hurricane Aaron continues to gain strength in the Atlantic moving over those very warm waters of the Caribbean now you can see it here on the satellite Max sustained winds up to 75 miles per hour and this tropical storm watch issue now for parts of the leeward islands that includes in Guilla Saint Martin Puerto Rico going to get in on

some of those outer bands as you mentioned heavy rain possible there this to move north of the isla be strengthening very qui by sunday morning, 125 mi four potentially by monda

mile per hour winds there its curve north kind of p coast because of these tw steering factors we have the Bermuda high off of the Atlantic and then we have this cold front right off the coast and that's what's going to continue to steer it away from the coast, you're going to see

this high pressure start to weaken a bit which could potentially move it further away and that's why most of our spaghetti models are all showing between Bermuda and the East Coast. But that rip current danger is going to be very high starting the middle of next week lasting right into next weekend for all the beachgoers anywhere from

Florida to Maine. I want to point out the wave heights because that is going to be another big beach danger waves could be 8 to 12 feet locally up to 15 feet for the outer banks even as far north as the Jersey Shore. This is Thursday Friday and right into the weekend, Cara.

All right, we're going to track in it Melissa, thank you so much. Well straight ahead if you first don't succeed try again and again and again, yeah, it's groundhog day in Texas still unable to get a quorum to pass the new maps for Congress or on

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Some other top headlines we're tracking for you this hour as we wait for the president to land in Anchorage, Alaska. Louisiana's attorney general announcing a lawsuit against the makers of Roblox. That lawsuit says not enough is being done to protect kids from predators on the wildly popular online game. The AG says Roblox has been overrun with harmful content and the company has prioritized growth and profits over safety.

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Texas holdout continues another day. There being 97 members present, a quorum is not present.

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if the holdout continues. And she pulled off the Queen's gambit before recess. A 10-year-old girl just became the youngest female chess player ever to meet a grandmaster who, by the way, 50 years older than she is, happened at a tournament in England this week. And in an interview with ABC News last year, she said she learned chess from YouTube before even playing and, well,

getting into tournaments. Pretty amazing. Straight ahead, President Trump set to land in Alaska any moment now for the historic summit on U.S. soil with Russian President Vladimir Putin. You can see the red carpet and the F-22s flanking his arrival at any second, stay with us.

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He's already talking about wanting Putin and President Zelensky to attend the next meeting with Trump as well. However, speaking on Air Force One, President Trump said he will walk if talks with Vladimir Putin don't go well today. As you can see, Air Force One parked at the end of that long red carpet, the stairs waiting for President Trump again. These air pictures from Anchorage, Alaska at this hour, an extremely high stakes summit

just a moments from now set to take place after the arrival of Vladimir Putin of Russia. We should also note that we have not seen a summit, a meeting like this between Vladimir Putin and an American president in more than a decade. There have been stand-asides, but not a summit like this one. He's been invited to Alaska by President Trump. The White House had said in recent days that this summit was Vladimir Putin's idea, and

now it will play out. Of course, the future of Ukraine, the war in Ukraine after Russia's invasion more than three years ago, at stake in this meeting. And notably, President Zelensky of Ukraine will not be part of this summit. When I bring in ABC's chief White House correspondent, Mary Bruce. Mary, I know you're watching the live pictures right now as we await President Trump as well.

Again, he says it himself, this is a high-stakes moment for President Trump.

David, the most high-stakes gamble of Trump's second term so far. This is a meeting that he promised would happen ever since his first day back in office. And now what a remarkable scene this is. President Trump now arriving here in Alaska, where it appears he is quite literally going to be rolling out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The first time, as you mentioned, that Putin will be meeting with an American president

since Russia invaded Ukraine three and a half years ago. And of course, no surprise here, both leaders have been really trying to set the stage in the days leading up to this. We have seen from the president somewhat a lowering of expectations. He's described this as a feel-out meeting, a chance to gauge Vladimir Putin and any progress they may be able to make towards trying to end this war.

But at the same time, the president has expressed confidence that he can convince Putin to make

a deal, trying to rely on sort of the power of their relationship and Trump's personality to see if they can finally get some progress here, David.

As we look at the carpet being rolled up to the stairs of Air Force One, you saw there a moment ago American F-22s in the foreground. They're now bringing the stairs to the plane, President Trump arriving before Vladimir Putin for this summit. Our chief global affairs anchor also on the ground in Anchorage. And, Martha, what do you make of this moment?

Well, certainly, what a message. Welcome to America, Vladimir Putin, and having those F-22s lining that red carpet. So I think that is clearly what the message wants to be. We are also hearing there are two B-2s. Another message, another message of force for Vladimir Putin as President Trump arrives and waits for Putin to arrive.

That is what he will see when he arrives. Of course, such high stakes, exactly what you were saying there, David, and President Trump said that as well, high stakes. Zelensky not here. President Trump had wanted Vladimir Zelensky to be here with President Putin. President Putin said, no way, basically.

He nixed that idea. So President Trump really wants that trilateral going forward. He has lowered expectations. He has raised expectations. But the latest thing he has said is he would like to see a ceasefire rapidly. That doesn't mean today, but he wants to see one rapidly.

He has been saying that for months now and nothing has happened. Again, that's why these are such high stakes, David.

Martha, our camera there trained on the door there on Air Force One, but also trained on all of the words coming from the White House this week in the days leading up to this rather hastily arranged summit. They announced it just several days back. We didn't even know necessarily the location until a couple of days ago. And Martha, as we watch this door here, let's go over what we have heard from the White House this week. They had tempered expectations, lowered them somewhat.

Then when the president was asked about that the following day, he did indicate in his words that there would be severe consequences for Vladimir Putin if there is not progress here, if there's not a ceasefire coming out of this summit.

And what he is clearly talking about is those sanctions. As you know, David, last week was a deadline for a ceasefire to put new, tougher sanctions in place. Instead, here we are today for this summit in Anchorage, Alaska. So that has been deferred for a while. But if they walk away with nothing, as you said, David, he said there will be severe

consequences. We have to look to see what those would be. Does it mean that if they in fact come out of that meeting and say we're going to have a trilateral meeting, that that's enough progress for President Trump? Because he has sent many mixed messages. He keeps people guessing. And that's part of his foreign policy.

He keeps people guessing. He had a good relationship with Zelensky. And then we had that White House scene with Zelensky where he berated him. Then he had meetings with Zelensky at the Vatican, and they became much more friendly. Then he berated Vladimir Putin, and that was a surprise after his relationship in the past with President Trump and Vladimir Putin, which has been a good one.

Again, you're watching ABC News live coverage on this Friday afternoon 2.30 Eastern time we're looking at Air Force one that has landed just moments ago in Anchorage Alaska. This is joint base Elmendorf Richardson where the plane has landed we are expecting Vladimir Putin to land a short time from now for this summit really being watched by the world and by

Ukraine in particular. Obviously president Zelensky not part of this summit, but the future of Ukraine hanging in the balance with this war now more than 3 years or chief foreign correspondent Ian panel who has reported from that war zone so often he is live with us from Kiev at this hour. And in your heard Martha talk about those

sanctions that President Trump was warning would come. That has come and gone, that deadline. And instead, what we're witnessing, the world witnessing, is a summit between Vladimir Putin and President Trump, and many saying this is likely what Putin wanted all along.

Yeah, I mean, this is a good day for Vladimir Putin. He comes out of isolation, out of the cold, right onto the red carpet that's rolled out for him there in Alaska, and he will enter the world stage again, side by side with a US president. He comes with the most experienced team alongside him. You have Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister for more than 20 years,

presidential aide. Ushakov, the former Russian ambassador to Washington. Putin himself has met five US presidents, so they are prepped and they are ready for this. And it's a high stakes gamble, if you like, for Putin and for Trump.

But it's Ukrainian lives on the line, as you said earlier on. Everyone here is watching and waiting. But I have to say, people's hopes are tempered by experience. Talk to any Ukrainian and they'll remind you that promises were made before when Ukraine decommissioned its entire nuclear arsenal. The United States, Russia, Great Britain and others offered guarantees of security should Ukraine be attacked. Well, that proved

worthless. When Vladimir Putin attacked in 2014 there was eventually a peace deal which was broken by Putin. So what the Ukrainians are looking for is what can President Trump achieve now that has not been achieved in the past. As you say President Zelensky not there he's issued comments this evening again saying Russia must end the war it started, the killings must stop and and he, like President Trump, has been reiterating the need for the three leaders to meet.

I think the lowest expectation that people have here is that there could be a ceasefire on the horizon. That's something that Russia hasn't agreed to before. That would be a victory for President Trump if that happened. I think Putin will want to offer something. Nevertheless, the clock is running really on President Trump, who offered to resolve

this conflict within 24 hours. It's not running so strongly on Vladimir Putin, whose forces are advancing on the front lines here, whose drones and missiles bomb Ukrainian cities night after night. The pressure he's feeling is economic and the possible consequences, as you mentioned, that President Trump threatened if he doesn't agree to something.

Ian Pennell with us for our live coverage. Again, the camera trained there on Air Force One. We expect to see the traveling pool, as it's called. Members of the press perhaps depart from Air Force One maybe before we actually get a glimpse of President Trump. Of course, on that plane, he has arrived in Anchorage, Alaska. And Ian, you mentioned President Zelensky making comments this evening in Ukraine.

Among the comments he's made is addressing the advances by the Russian military in recent days and their continued pounding of Ukraine in just the last 24 hours. In fact, he said something of the sort that people are dying, civilians are being caught

in the crossfire in these 24 hours leading right up to this summit. And Zelensky says that speaks louder than words as they begin this summit.

Yeah, I mean, when we've seen those threats before from President Trump, we've seen angry responses to Russian attacks, we've seen deadlines issued by the White House to the Kremlin and almost immediately the bombs have started to fall. Again our team here in Ukraine are reporting that on the front lines right now while we're talking the fighting is still going on. Russian troops are trying to take more

territory. There is no indication whatsoever on the ground that anything has changed. We had an air raid siren just a few minutes ago, that's the third one that we've had here in the capital today and other parts of Ukraine have come under attack. Russia says of course that it hasn't launched any attacks against Ukraine but we've seen repeatedly, we've witnessed ourselves, evidence to the contrary. The evidence on the ground is that Putin thinks he's winning and that gives him a very strong hand in these negotiations, at least to try and make

the case that the territory that they've taken should be counted as Russian territory. Now President Trump said yes, territory will be discussed but it's up to Ukraine to decide exactly what happens. And that's really a sticking point, not just for Ukraine, but also for European allies. Remember, we had that meeting in Berlin earlier this week where a statement was issued saying that the territorial integrity of Ukraine should be honoured, that no decisions about

Ukrainian land should be taken without Ukraine, and that there should be someoured, that no decisions about Ukrainian land should be taken without Ukraine and that there should be some kind of security guarantees. Again, something that President Trump alluded to in the past couple of hours. That's something that Ukraine has been looking for all along. The US being involved in some kind of security backstop, not necessarily US troops on the ground here, but something that gives them confidence that

Vladimir Putin won't invade Ukraine for a third time. I think hopes are tempered by experience here, but people will be watching, people will be waiting, and people will be hoping that after three and a half really hard, really painful years in a country that's exhausted by war, that perhaps, perhaps there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

Ian Pennell with us for our live coverage. Ian, you and I have both interviewed President Zelensky along the way. Martha Raddatz, of course, has as well. And the president of Ukraine just in the last 24 hours signaling in very positive terms his hope for what President Trump is trying to accomplish. And, as you point out, at the very least,

President Trump has made it clear that it's his hope there will be a ceasefire that comes out of this summit. The president has said it will then be up to Russia and Ukraine to decide whether or not there will be some sort of a land swap. That's a word used by President Trump,

terminology used by him, whether or not there'll be an exchange of territory of sorts. Vladimir Putin has not landed yet in Anchorage, Alaska. It's our understanding now, we have just learned a moment ago, the White House has now confirmed

that this meeting with President Putin, between President Trump and Vladimir Putin, will now be three on three. The president will be joined by his special envoy, Steve Whitkoff, who of course was in Russia not long ago. His meeting in Russia, instrumental in leading to this summit just days later.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will also be in that room. Again, Putin, Trump and two high-level people from both the U.S. and from Russia also in that meeting. So six people in that initial summit. Later in the day, we're expecting to have some sort of a working lunch perhaps between delegations from both countries and then

late this afternoon early this evening our time here in the U S the East Coast we will be carrying what's expected to be a joint live press conference between president Trump Vladimir Putin and of course the press corps assembled there in Anchorage, Alaska. I'm joined by our chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Carl also watching this unfold this afternoon and

John what are your sources telling you about how quickly this was put together and why president Trump decided that the summit might be the best way to go here if there's any hope for a ceasefire. They're not here. We're not going to have a shot at that handshake. John Carl expected to join us for our coverage, having some trouble getting his audio up and

running. John, can you hear me now? I think I, yeah, I got you now. I was saying this came together in a flash. The decision made last week to come together to have this summit, late in the week, and President Trump actually wanted to see if he could do it within days, was hoping to do this as soon as Monday of this week. This was the absolute earliest they could get the logistics put together. They didn't even have a location for this summit.

They knew Alaska, but even after they announced Alaska, they didn't know where in Alaska. They figured it had to be Anchorage. Where in Anchorage? Obviously, the quickest and easiest place to do this was right there on the US Air Force Base. I have to say, David, that there's tremendous apprehension

among many of Ukraine's supporters and allies here in the United States and in Europe, and of course, in Ukraine, about this meeting. This is a real change in strategy. For three and a half years, the Europeans, the Americans, have sought to isolate Vladimir Putin,

isolate him diplomatically, isolate him economically, the severe sanctions that were put on Russia, the supplying of arms, increasingly lethal arms to the Ukrainians to support their war effort. That's been the approach for three and a half years. This is a dramatic change. Welcoming Vladimir Putin, no longer isolating him, welcoming him to American territory,

giving him a one-on-one meeting with an American president. This is entirely different from the approach that we have seen since the invasion of Ukraine. And there's apprehension as a result. But it must be said, David, and you and I have been covering every step of this. The approach so far has not succeeded. We've seen escalating civilian casualties in Ukraine.

Lord knows the price that Russia has paid for its decision to invade a sovereign country has been almost impossible to conceive, hundreds of thousands of Russian troops dying over the past three and a half years. The death toll over the course of just a few months exceeding the death toll that we had as the United States throughout the entire Vietnam War.

So look, this is a this is a dramatic departure. But it's one. I did I think is a recognition that the approach that has been taken in a unified way be with the United States and Europe. Simply was not working.

We've been told the president John Carl thanks to you even told the president remains on Air Force one meeting with the senators from Alaska waiting for the arrival of Vladimir Putin of course from Russia and as we've been pointing out there are live coverage here. This is the first major summit a meeting between the president

and the Russian president here on American soil in more than a decade and as John Carl points out a lot of trepidation about the meeting, but also the reality that so far nothing else has worked to try to bring this war to a close more than three years now after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The moment Vladimir Putin arrives will come back on the air live. I do want to share with you though what the president said on board Air Force One during this flight. He said

there's nothing set in stone. I do want certain things. President Trump going on to say, I want to see a cease-fire. Europe is not telling me what to do, but they're going to be involved in this process, obviously, as well as Zelensky. And we know, in recent days, that President Trump promised President Zelensky that he would call him right after this summit is held in Anchorage, Alaska, to give him a readout of this summit is held in Anchorage, Alaska, to give him a readout of this summit.

The president also has admittedly said the stakes are very high here. He said there's a 25% chance that this summit ends in failure. He said again in the last 24 hours that if this doesn't go well, I could simply walk, saying he would return to Washington, run the country,

and then the war would continue. He did say this week leading up to this that there would be severe consequences, in his words. He did temper that when asked again just in the last 24 hours, but said there would be severe consequences for Vladimir Putin if there is no cease-fire coming out of this that would then allow for talks not only between Trump and Putin but president Zelensky as well

about the future of Ukraine the future of this war and now on for more than 3 years the moment we see Vladimir Putin touchdown there in Anchorage Alaska, the moment we see these 2 leaders will be back on the air live. I'm David you're here in New York, I'll see you shortly.

This has been a special report from ABC News.

I don't know what you're so angry about.

And good afternoon, everyone. David, thank you so much. I'm Kira Phillips touching down in Anchorage, Alaska now. The red carpet is rolled out. The F-22s are flanking the walk that President Trump will take. President Trump arriving for this historic summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It's been more than a decade since Putin has been invited to the U.S. for a meeting with an American president. Here on ABC News Live, we'll be bringing you live special coverage all day as the two leaders discuss a possible end to the war in Ukraine. And the latest detail that we have just learned, it is no longer just going to be Putin and Trump

in the room for a one-on-one with their interpreters, but now the president will be joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also Special Envoy to Russia Steve Whitkoff. Putin will also be joined by two of his advisers, Washington managing editor Catherine Falders. Joining us out of D.C., national security and defense analyst Mick Mulroy is with us, our foreign correspondent Patrick Rievel and

also contributor and associate editor at the Washington Post, Mary Jordan. Join me now. All right. It's no longer a one on one now, Catherine, but a three

on three. Why the change? Yeah, well, that's a good question. We learned aboard Air Force One, at least according to our Rachel Scott, who is functioning as the pool reporter aboard the plane, that, as you know, it would now be a three on three meeting. So who is functioning as the pool reporter aboard the plane, that, as you note, it will now be a three-on-three meeting. So who will be in the room? As you noted, the special envoy, Steve Whitkoff, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and the president, of course, will see three people from the Russian

delegation as well. So that has expanded a bit. And then, after that, of course, there will be a working lunch that will include more of those Cabinet secretaries that we either have seen or know are traveling to Alaska there to participate in this summit with the president. Of course, Whitkoff and Rubio will also be present at that lunch, in addition to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Obviously, the Commerce and the Treasury secretaries Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessett, will also be at that working lunch among the two delegations. We're also learning, and I know that we have that camera right now just at the door of Air Force One. That's where Trump, of course, will come off of the plane, at the front of Air Force One there.

He's still on the plane right now. And we're told, according to a White House official, that Trump right now is exchanging greetings on the plane with the senators from Alaska. That would be Senators Murkowski and Senator Sullivan, as well as Governor Mike Dunleavy. So he obviously has those officials on the plane with him who he's speaking to now. He hasn't emerged yet. We'll see if maybe that happens once Putin lands. But, again, we're still waiting to see the president, at least for this

arrival ceremony that is scheduled to to occur shortly after he disembarks from that plane.

OK. And as we wait for the doors to open, bit of a holding pattern here waiting for Vladimir Putin to land. Mary Bruce, our chief White House correspondent there in Anchorage.

Let me just follow up for a moment now that we've learned that Steve Whitkoff is going to be in the room along with Marco Rubio. We can understand the Secretary of State, but Steve Whitkoff, you know, going from billionaire financier

to now being in the room negotiating world peace here to end the killing in Ukraine. Just give us, you know, background on how now this one-on-one that was supposed to happen is going to be three and three. Clearly, the president feels he needs Steve Whitkoff and Marco Rubio by his side to get this done.

Yeah, and of course, they both bring different things to the table here. I mean, Steve Whitkoff, as you mentioned, quite a trajectory for him. He's the president's special envoy. But he has spent months really developing and cultivating this relationship with the Russians and with Vladimir Putin himself. And, of course, Whitkoff was instrumental to the meeting that we are about to see play out today.

He really acted as the intermediary to help set this up. It was through him that Putin requested this meeting after they met last week. And it is hard to remember that it has only been a week since all of this came about. But he has, you know, I think, that relationship that he will be able to bring to bear in the conversation today. Marco Rubio, of course, the secretary of state, his background is different and interesting in this context. He certainly has been very critical of Vladimir Putin in the past, critical of his invasion of Ukraine and the way that he has handled this war, although you have seen that tone somewhat

soften in recent months. But he will bring sort of his seasoned foreign policy and diplomacy to the table as well. And then the translators obviously will be there. It is a departure from the last time Putin met with President Trump, when it was just the translators in the room. You will remember there was a lot of criticism for that move, because it led both sides to

really have to be trusted for their own version of the story. You didn't have others in the room to help recount what exactly had been discussed, a little bit different here today. And as we were discussing more broadly, the president today was asked on Air Force One

how he will

define success coming out of this meeting. And he said, I really can't tell you that. It comes as he has sort of set differing tones of expectations coming into this. But the president did make clear that he wants to see a cease-fire quickly. The big X factor will quickly mean that we will see that today. And of course, the president has said bluntly he thinks there's a 25% chance this meeting simply fails.

OK, well, Mary, Trump already said today that he'll walk out, as you said, if he doesn't feel like he's getting what he wants. We know Trump very well by covering him. This could end quickly if he gets frustrated. It seems that this is a moment that he truly means business. Everybody coming forward on both sides of the aisle saying it's obvious he wants the killing to

be stopped now. And so this could end quickly. It could, but keep in mind that, you know, he and Putin do have a relationship, a notoriously cozy relationship at times. So the president has been more critical of Putin in recent months. The question is whether that sort of harsher tone that he's been taking towards Putin, how does that translate in the room today? I think the president, he has been sending some mixed messages.

While, yes, he has expressed confidence that he can get Putin to play ball, essentially. He says he thinks Putin is ready to make a deal. Trump has said that, you know, unlike his predecessor, he feels that he alone is a president who can really negotiate with Vladimir Putin over this kind of conflict. But he's also lowered expectations, saying that he feels this is really a feel-out meeting, in his words.

The White House has described it as a listening session, as a chance to gauge Putin's temperature. And the president has made clear and reiterated today that when it comes to the details of any deal to end this war, that Ukraine will need to be present. And while the president, as we said, says there's a 25 percent chance it fails, if it doesn't, he has made clear he wants Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky to get into a

room together soon, so soon that he floated the idea perhaps of bringing Zelensky to get into a room together soon, so soon that he floated the idea perhaps of bringing Zelensky here to Alaska.

Our chief international correspondent Ian Pannel also joining in on the live coverage here as we are still waiting for those doors to open on Air Force One. Vladimir Putin in route. Once he lands, the president will come out of a bit of a holding pattern, and then we should see the two leaders, according to the schedule, come down off of each aircraft and possibly shake hands, walk down that red carpet

that's flanked by F-22s there at the joint air base in Anchorage, Alaska. Ian, you know, you are in Ukraine now. You have been in both countries. Just give us an overall sense of how Ukrainians are feeling right now about this and how the Russians are feeling about this.

Yeah, hi. I mean, we were standing here on this very, very balcony in the center of Kiev as the war began. We heard the first Russian missiles land, the explosions just over in that direction as the Russians started to target communications, as the tanks rolled across the border. And here we are almost three and a half years

later, millions of people forced from their homes, hundreds of thousands of people killed, including hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers, Hundreds of thousands of people killed, including hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers, tens of thousands of civilians, and people in this country are war-weary. They've endured night after night of incessant drone and missile attacks. Young children have learned to identify the sound of different drones. They know where the shelters are. They know the procedures.

Even schoolchildren know where they must hide when the air raid sirens go off. We've had more air raid sirens again this evening. So Ukrainians are hopeful that this might be the beginning at the end, but that is tempered by experience. They've seen this before. Every Ukrainian will be able to tell you that Ukraine handed over its vast nuclear arsenal

at the end of the Cold War in exchange for security guarantees offered by the United States, signed alongside Russia and the United Kingdom and others, offering security guarantees that Ukraine would not be attacked and that it would be protected if that were the case. Well, those protections, those guarantees proved to be empty. Again, after Russia invaded Crimea and the eastern Donbass in 2014, there was a settlement there and pledges were made that there wouldn't be a further invasion.

Well, of course, we know that three and a half years later, Russia, Vladimir Putin once again broke his promises to Ukraine and to the international community. And that's why people are cautious. They want to hope that this is a meaningful process about to begin, but they'll believe it when they see it.

They'll believe it when they have a proper night's sleep, when their children can go to school without fear of being attacked, when loved ones say goodbye in the morning on the doorstep that they know they'll see each other again at the end of the day. But there's scepticism as well. Many people believe that Vladimir Putin, whose forces are advancing, albeit very slowly, on the front lines, especially in the east of the country, putting Ukrainian forces under huge pressure, is stalling for time. That he's under pressure from Donald Trump and he has to be shown to be

making some kind of concession, so yes, of course, they are here at the meeting, but let's wait and see. Let's see what the small print is. Remember that Russia has taken over 20%, one fifth of Ukrainian land. Like I say, there are nightly attacks. Its troops are everywhere, tens of thousands of troops.

Russia only needs to make very minor, what appear to be minor concessions, for it to be a victory for Vladimir Putin, for Donald Trump to say, oh, well, look, Russia is making concessions, and for the pressure then to fall back on Vladimir Zelensky. But it's enshrined in the Ukrainian constitution

what the international borders are. And Ukrainians are adamant they must not hand over any of their land. And they need those meaningful security guarantees that guarantee that Russia will not invade this country for a

third time.

We're next. All right, now I want to take it to Anne Simmons, former Moscow Bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal. So, Anne, just, you know, this is the first time we've had a chance to talk as our live coverage has has begun. You were Moscow bureau chief. Give us your thoughts on this historic summit and

the fact that Vladimir Putin has actually come to the U.S. He'll be landing on U.S. soil to meet face to face with a U.S. president. Do you think, given the deadlines President Trump has given, this bit of a contentious relationship the two presidents have had, that the president has, is this Putin's plane that's coming in?

We're looking at live pictures now. Is this Putin's plane? Okay, not quite sure yet. Actually, you know, Anne, let me bring you in. I don't know, can you see our live picture here?

Yes, now I can.

You can see it now?

Yes, yes I can.

All right, you're former Moscow Bureau Chief.

Does this look like this could be Putin's plane?

This could be him, or it could be part of his delegation, but it looks as though it might be him.

Okay, great. We're gonna stay on this live picture. Perfect timing to have you with us and very grateful to have you, by the way, considering your background and experience. All right, stay with me, Anne.

We're gonna take it to our David Muir. Stay with us.

This is an ABC News special report, Trump-Putin Summit.

Now reporting, David Muir. Good afternoon. Just before 3pm here in the east. We're coming back on the air. The eyes of the world now locked on Anchorage, Alaska, where President Trump landed a short time ago and news just moments ago Vladimir Putin has now arrived for this high stakes summit. Let's take a look at live pictures there from Anchorage, Alaska. This summit obviously will involve Russia's war in Ukraine, the future of Ukraine itself quite possibly hanging in the balance over what unfolds during the next several hours.

You can see Vladimir Putin arriving on this plane just moments ago at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. We know that Air Force One arrived within the last 30 minutes or so. We were on the air for that and talked you through what's expected to play out here. You can see there the stairs have been aligned with the door there in Air Force One. President Trump expected to come down those stairs once Vladimir Putin is ready to deplane as well. There is literally a red carpet that's been rolled out not far from Air Force One.

It's expected that both leaders will greet one another on that carpet. And as we pointed out earlier, while we were on the air, this is significant, obviously, for a number of reasons. High stakes. Those were words used by President Trump himself on the way to this summit. But we also have not seen an American president and Vladimir Putin meeting in a format like this for a summit on American soil in more than a decade.

That in and of itself is significant here. Obviously, the future of Ukraine will be discussed, Vladimir Putin making it clear in the last 24 hours that he has other items on the agenda, including the economy, and whether or not any sort of ties can be strengthened between Russia and the U.S. As you know, in recent weeks, President Trump had threatened severe sanctions against Russia to try to move up any kind of timeline for a possible ceasefire. Those sanctions were

never brought to bear and instead what we're now witnessing is a summit. A remarkable moment. There have some been many who have questioned whether or not giving Vladimir Putin a moment on the world stage and on American soil like this was the right move. Others will say nothing has worked so far and President Trump himself has acknowledged that this is a gamble. He said in the last 24 hours there's a 25 percent chance that this could fail.

And again on Air Force One a short time ago saying he could walk from this if the summit doesn't go well. They are expected to meet together, as I mentioned earlier, while we were on the air. This is going to be a three-on-three meeting is what they're calling it, which essentially means President Trump will be there with two of his high-level team members, Special Envoy Steve Whitcoff, who, of course, traveled to Russia not long ago and helped make this summit happen, hastily arranged,

actually, after Whitcoff's meeting in Russia. The Russian delegation saying Whitcoff gave signals that were encouraging encouraging and they thought they should move forward with this summit. Also in the room in addition to President Trump, Steve Wittkoff will be Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Again, three people in the room for the US, three in the room for the Russian delegation. Obviously, Vladimir Putin will be central to this summit between Putin and Trump, but there will be others in the room along with Vladimir Putin as well.

Following the summit itself, there is expected to be some sort of a working lunch, a working session with larger delegations from both countries. And then it's the plan later this afternoon, early this evening, to hold a joint press conference in front of the world, of course, we'll carry it live here on ABC News, where both leaders will be asked, has there been any progress here in coming to terms on a ceasefire to at least halt the fighting in Ukraine now, which has lasted more than three

years since the Russian invasion, so that President Zelensky, so that Ukraine can be brought into these discussions themselves to talk about the future of Ukraine. President Trump has talked in recent days about a land swap. That's the term he used, some sort of territorial exchange between Russia and Ukraine, but he also indicated that would have to be negotiated between Russia and Ukraine themselves. Mary Bruce our chief White House correspondent watching the split screen right along with us a remarkable moment, Mary and

as we pointed out here, president Trump has acknowledged this is in fact a gamble.

It is a huge gamble David and it is remarkable when you see these images this really historic split screen, and to think the moment that Vladimir Putin's plane touched down, that was the moment that the isolation that he has faced from the West for the last three and a half years ruptured. Instead of being rebuffed by American presidents and European leaders, here the president of

Russia is now being welcomed. That red carpet literally rolled out to meet face to face with President Trump and while the president who famously said that he could end this war in 24 hours now concedes this is proving to be more difficult than he thought. But he has been confident that he has a unique ability to convince

black Vladimir putin to try and make some kind of progress here today, he says he wants that ceasefire, but he also was blunt with reporters on Air Force one today when asked what a success look like he said I really can't tell you that of course Vladimir Putin also setting some expectations he's been keeping lots of praise and flattery on president Trump ahead of this

meeting he is well aware of the power of this image that you are about to see something that we have not seen in many years, David as you note the Russian leader about to shake hands with the American

president on American soil, no less.

Our chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce with us here for our coverage is of course live from Anchorage, Alaska along with Martha raddatz Rachel Scott Ian panel live in Kiev Ukraine, we are across the world for this historic summit here, playing out this afternoon in front of the world. Mary mentioned that President Trump did take questions on Air Force One on the way to Anchorage,

Alaska. And he was asked, what will make success of this summit today? And he said, there's nothing set in stone, the president said. He said, I want certain things. I want to see a ceasefire. Europe's not telling me what to do, but they're going to be involved in the process, as well as Zelensky. I want to see a ceasefire rapidly. I don't know if it's going to be today,

but I'm not going to be happy if it's not today. That from the president on board Air Force One on the way to Anchorage, Alaska. But the president himself has said the ceasefire certainly is not guaranteed. Coming out of this summit today, that is his hope for what he's able to achieve. He has indicated already that what he would like to see next is a second summit that would include Putin and Zelensky and President Trump himself if they wanted him there as well. That's been his indication the last 24 to 48 hours.

Again, President Trump on Air Force One right now, we're told he was meeting with senators from the state of Alaska while he awaited the arrival of Vladimir Putin. And as you can see, the Russian plane there, the stairs have been brought to the doorway of the Russian plane as well. A remarkable moment. And again, you cannot underscore the stakes here, not only because we haven't seen a summit like this in more than a decade on US soil welcoming Vladimir Putin,

but also given what we have witnessed, the world has witnessed really for more than three years now, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the countless lives lost on both the Ukrainian side and the Russian side, and the fighting that is still underway as we come on the air in the last 24 hours.

These last few weeks this summer, Russia has had a significant impact in that eastern region of Ukraine. President Zelensky, in addressing the Ukrainian people leading up to this summit, pointing out that civilians had been caught in the crossfire again in just the last 24 hours, saying in so many words that the Russian military action that continues leading right up to the moments of this summit, he believes, is an indication stronger than any words, any

promise of a potential ceasefire coming out of this. In fact, in meeting with European leaders and in talking with President Trump this week, President Zelensky said he believes that Vladimir Putin is bluffing here. We will have to wait and see what comes of this summit. Vladimir Putin and the Russian delegation

indicating even before this summit that while the future of Ukraine and any potential ceasefire is on the agenda, that they have other things they want to discuss with President Trump. Our chief global affairs anchor, Martha Raddatz, on the ground there in Anchorage, Alaska, with me here this afternoon.

And Martha, there has been a lot of critique about whether or not to hold this summit, whether to invite Vladimir Putin to American soil. As we heard John Carl report earlier, many in the White House will say nothing has worked so far that this was a gamble worth taking. Of course, we won't know until what we see

come out of this on the other side. But it's hard to believe that this is not what Vladimir Putin at least would want at this moment to be welcomed on American soil.

Exactly, David, and with that red carpet rolled out, it is true. Nothing has worked before working towards a ceasefire in the Biden administration. But we'll see whether President Trump can make any progress, because you have to remember, of course, that it was Putin who set who set the deal here today. He did not want Volodymyr Zelensky there. President Trump agreed to that. President Trump had originally wanted that trilateral meeting.

It did not happen. President Trump is going to push him for one soon. But whether or not we'll see that come out of this meeting remains to be seen. President Zelensky was, of course, deeply concerned once they accepted a meeting just between Trump and Putin. And remember, Ukraine is at the center of this.

This is Zelensky's country, and he is not here. And in fact, in just the last couple of days, Dmitry Peskov, who is a spokesperson for Vladimir Putin, was asked whether Zelensky's position in this war would be, or what he wants in these negotiations would be discussed. And Peskov said, no, it won't be. So that puts him out of the picture, except for what President Trump says in those meetings. He is in some ways the voice of Zelensky in these meetings.

As we said earlier, David, he will call Zelensky as soon as these meetings are finished to see what, if any, progress is made. But this indeed is a gamble. It is a gamble. But nothing has worked in the past. So he was willing to take this step to see if they could make progress, to see if they could get a ceasefire.

Zelensky says he wants a ceasefire before further negotiations. So if they come out and there's no ceasefire, will Zelensky even come to any meetings in

the future, David?

Will he come to any meetings in the future? And what will President Trump do, given the threat of sanctions in recent weeks? We are seeing some movement there. President Trump there at the top of the stairs, Air Force One. Giving his trademark fist bump there at the top of the stairs. Now coming down the stairs,

and we expect to see Vladimir Putin at about the same time emerge from the plane there as well. Again, you're watching ABC News live coverage of this historic summit. This is Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. Vladimir Putin just now emerging from the plane there and coming down the stairs. And again, we have not seen a summit, a meeting of this magnitude on American soil in more

than a decade between an American president and Vladimir Putin. And in fact, the West, including the United States and Europe, had not communicated in person with Putin since the invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago. That war raging on, the fighting even in the last 24 hours, President Trump has made it very clear what he wants here is an immediate ceasefire. When asked if that's what he will get,

the president has been very honest in these last couple of days, saying, I don't know what I'll get. He gave it a 25% chance of failure, but also said that he believes Vladimir Putin wants to make a deal here,

that he wants to negotiate. The president was asked on his way on Air Force One, you've had a lot of phone calls with Putin, so what's the difference in a face-to-face and an in-person meeting? The president saying, no difference, he's a smart guy,

he's been doing it for a long time, we get along, there's a good respect level on both sides, that he believes something will come of this. The president waiting there on the red carpet for Vladimir Putin. Applauding there as Vladimir Putin approaches the president of the United States. Of course, we remember the summit between these two leaders during President Trump's

first term in Helsinki, they met, and now they meet again right here. The eyes of the world on this moment, particularly because Ukraine, the future of Ukraine, the future of that conflict, the war that has taken so many lives on both sides of the conflict, hangs in the balance here. We have been told that President Trump and Vladimir Putin will meet together. They will each have two high-level aides from their cabinets, their

administrations in the room as well. So there'll be six people in the room, three and three. Steve Whitkoff, and there you see a flyover, the B-2 flyover. That was expected. You can see the F-22s there and some of the cutaways from the cameras lining that red carpet. And there you have it. Obviously you know what a photo op is and that's the photo op. Still cameras there greeting these two leaders. That handshake now will be seen around the world,

if not on live television, moments later across social media.

I can hear U.S. trust your word? Thank you, press. Thank you, press. Thank you, press.

Thank you, press.

The question was, how can the U.S. trust your word? That question obviously posed to Vladimir Putin. Obviously, they did not engage. There will be a motorcade now that unfolds on their way to this summit. They are expected to show us at some point the two leaders meeting in that initial summit. What comes after that summit, we're told, is what they're calling a working lunch, a

working session of some sort, during which there would be a larger delegation from both Russia and the United States hammering out a number of issues here. But the president saying on his way to anchorage that what he wants today what he wants coming out of this summit is a ceasefire he wants it rapidly. He acknowledges I don't know if I'm going to see it today, but I'm not going to be happy. If it's not today.

Ian panel, our chief foreign correspondent he's live for us from Kiev, Ukraine. And Ian, as we look at these two world leaders, we cannot forget, and you've interviewed them countless times and so have I, when we brought the broadcast to Ukraine, the Ukrainian families who've been caught in the middle of all of this, who've wondered about the future of their country, even the Ukrainians watching right here in America, many of whom relocated

to Alaska of all places. Now watching Vladimir Putin arrive, President Trump's attempts to try to get a ceasefire unfold. We cannot forget the Ukrainian people caught in the middle here.

Yeah, very right, David. I mean, Ukrainians are watching, Ukrainians are hoping, but I think if you ask many people what they think of these images that we're looking at now, they will tell you that they feel sick to their stomach. Vladimir Putin is a man who has been charged with war crimes. His troops have been accused of carrying out sexual abuse, of murder, of occupying 20% of Ukrainian land, of wantonly destroying territory,

of driving millions from their homes, of killing tens of thousands of people. And so yes, they will not be happy.

Ian Pannel with us for our coverage. That's a remarkable scene right there. Vladimir Putin waving from inside the beast, as we call it, inside the president of the we call it, inside the president of the United States motorcade. John Karl, our chief Washington correspondent, watching this unfold also with us here today.

A remarkable moment, John, for Vladimir Putin to get into the car with the American president, obviously a very sensitive vehicle protecting the president of the United States. They will travel now to this summit together, it would appear.

I mean, Donald Trump, some will question whether he knows statecraft. He does, David, know stagecraft. That was a made-for-television moment, seeing him walk down one red carpet, greeting Putin walking down another red carpet,

and then getting in to the presidential limo. There have been so many critics of this summit over the past several days saying, how could Donald Trump welcome Vladimir Putin to American soil? How could he give him the honor of meeting with an American president? They will no doubt have a similar reaction when they see that picture of a smiling Vladimir Putin in the seat there next to the president in the presidential limo.

I can tell you this, though. Donald Trump sees it entirely differently. He sees this as he has brought the Russian president to American soil. This is a home game for Donald Trump. He has brought him to American land. He has done that flyover of the B-2 bomber, just like the B-2 bombers that took out the

air campaign against the Iranian nuclear facility, walking by American firepower and getting into the most sensitive personal vehicle in America, the presidential limousine and coming into that limousine. Donald Trump sees this as, you know, you're on my turf here. I'm the president. I'm effectively the world leader. Let's go.

It's just the stagecraft, again, the stagecraft. It reminds me much of how he handled his meeting, especially the first meeting, he had two of them, with Kim Jong-un. Another one, how could you meet with the North Korean dictator? How could you give him the honor of a meeting with the American president? I think Donald Trump looks at the critics and he says, look, I'm taking an entirely different approach. Your approach has failed. I'm confident mine won't.

John Karl here on this wholly different approach from President Trump, the home field advantage, as John alludes to here, hoping that it will help in convincing Vladimir Putin that a ceasefire and one very shortly is really the only way to move forward here and to get President Zelensky to that table as well. The rhetoric coming from President Trump in recent weeks

when it involves Russia and Vladimir Putin, some of the strongest, harshest if you will, rhetoric towards Putin that I can remember in covering President Trump both as a first administration and now his second administration. I want to bring in our chief White House correspondent, Mary Bruce, because she's in the room where both of those leaders will actually take questions later today.

Mary, I'm sure you were struck by this, too. Even though the rhetoric had been somewhat threatening, talking about sanctions that would come, instead of the sanctions, they did not come to bear. We're instead seeing a summit on U.S. soil. And it's unmistakable the warmth that you could see

between these two leaders, President Trump reaching over, you know, touching Vladimir Putin's hand, shaking it multiple times, and then the smile from Vladimir Putin inside the beast, inside the presidential motorcade, speaking volumes as well.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT, TRNN NEWSHOUR, WELLS FARGO NEWSHOUR, WELLS FARGO NEWSHOUR, WELLS FARGO NEWSHOUR, WELLS FARGO NEWSHOUR, WELLS FARGO NEWSHOUR, WELLS FARGO side by side with the president together in the beast that was a very friendly welcome they appeared almost chummy and that is something of the president Trump has argued is a strength of his going in to this meeting why he feels he's uniquely positioned to finally be able to to potentially make some actual progress here towards ending this war. He knows that

they have this you know cozy relationship in the past the president though has been increasingly harsh in his language towards Russia and Vladimir Putin. He has said quite bluntly that Putin often says one thing and does another, that often he will say one thing to him on the phone, on their personal conversations,

their one-on-one talks, and then it will prove to be meaningless. That's the word that President Trump has used. The question today, one of many, has been whether the President will bring that sort of tougher stance into this meeting. Now, based on what we just saw here in that very friendly, warm welcome, they seem to be a bit at odds.

But the president has been blunt in the last 24 hours, saying that he feels he can convince

Putin. He said, he's not going to mess with me. We will see if that's the case, David. Interesting, Mary, because the president has used that word. You know, he was pressed on whether or not, you know, Vladimir Putin can be trusted going into this summit, if in fact President Trump really believes that there will be progress here, that a ceasefire is in fact possible. And the president has lowered expectations somewhat as the week went on. You did hear him pressed that if you don't get a ceasefire, will there be consequences?

And the president said there would be severe consequences. You know, I would imagine, having covered President Trump for years now, along with you, Mary, and our whole team, that when you roll out a red carpet like this, when you invite Vladimir Putin onto American soil,

first time in more than a decade, for a meeting of this magnitude, of this stature, for a summit like this, that if President Trump does not get his cease-fire at the end of this summit, that will also be quite remarkable to watch unfold and what President Trump's steps then would be.

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio): Yes, it is going to be hard to consider this a win if he doesn't walk away from this with a ceasefire or some kind of clear commitment to have a ceasefire and sometime soon. The president has certainly been walking this fine line. Look, this is an incredibly delicate dance. And while the president has been sort of optimistic that he can make progress, he has also been downplaying those expectations, saying that this is a feel-out meeting, that he's trying

to gauge where Putin stands on all of this. Putin has also been setting expectations. He has praised the president and the American administration, describing their efforts as quite energetic, as sincere. We also know he's hoping to expand the conversation today beyond Ukraine, perhaps an effort to distract from what President Trump wants to talk about.

We know he wants to talk about nuclear arms control and trade and economic cooperation. That's reflected in the aides and the staff that he is bringing here today. So I think President Trump is optimistic, but he is also realistic. And he has said, by his own admission, that he thinks there's a 25 percent chance that this meeting will fail and that he may have to walk away. But even walking away would be considered a win, one could certainly argue for Vladimir Putin.

Mary Bruce, stay with us here. Martha Raddatz, so what President Zelensky must be making of these images right now, watching President Trump greet Vladimir Putin on the red carpet and the smiling Russian leader inside the motorcade on the way to this summit? President Zelensky, at least publicly in these last couple of days, has been gracious toward President Trump and hoping that President Trump's effort toward a ceasefire is successful,

seeming to acknowledge that nothing has worked until now and hopefully something will come of this summit, according to Zelensky.

But Zelensky also has been very clear. He thinks America and the allies should put more pressure on Vladimir Putin. He believes that is the key to all of this. Put pressure on Vladimir Putin. Now what happens in this meeting, whether, whether Donald Trump puts pressure on Vladimir Putin, we will see. But this is quite a remarkable beginning with those, with the red carpet and the two men

walking together. I can't imagine that Zelensky feels good about that at all. Seeing those images. I just talked to him in June as you know, David, and you've done it yourself as well. He is very unclear exactly what his relationship with Donald Trump is at this point. It has gone back and forth. He was berated by President Trump. Then they had that It has gone back and forth. He was berated by President Trump. Then they had that meeting in the Vatican and seemed to get along very well.

I talked to him after that meeting, and he said he really wasn't sure what their relationship is. But everything he says is for his country at this point. He wants that war to end more than anything. David, I'm thinking right now of you and I on the air that first night of the invasion,

when Vladimir Putin wanted to take all of Ukraine. President Trump is absolutely right about that, and we thought that night that he possibly would take that, but it has been this grinding, horrendous war with so, so many people lost.

And as we look at these pictures, Martha, of these two leaders meeting, President Trump's hand there on the arm of Vladimir Putin, that image being seen by the world, and as I was talking to Ian earlier, Martha, you can't help but to think of the Ukrainian civilians who have been caught in the middle of all of this. We're watching this from a geopolitical perspective, but also the families.

And you and I have been to Ukraine so many times. And, you know, I don't forget those interviews with the mothers early on who were leaving with their young children, knowing that their husbands were staying behind to fight for the future of Ukraine. And Martha, I remember, you know, one mother, a tearful mother, saying to me, you know one mother a tearful mother saying to me, you know will we be able to come back and obviously as a reporter. I did not have the answer to that question for her, but I know that's the question that we all we're sort of greeted

with as we arrive there to to report on what was an invasion that's now lasted you know 3 years.

It truly is and and of course Ian is in Kiev right now when I was there a couple of months ago, he's experienced this all the time. You go into a bomb shelter. Those air raid warnings are all the time. But you imagine the Ukrainian people doing this night after night after night. I know you have been to those areas where there were mass graves, David. I have, too. And you can't

help thinking of that today when you see Vladimir Putin get off that plane and walk along that red carpet for this meeting. So there is great hope. We all hope that there is a ceasefire of some sort. But they—I also remember, David, you and I were in Hanoi together. That was indeed a new move on the part of President Trump to meet one-on-one

with Kim Jong-un. But that didn't work. That didn't work at all. They ended that meeting within a couple of hours in Hanoi. And that was about nuclear weapons, of course. Nuclear weapons are—there are even more nuclear weapons in North Korea today, David.

We heard that President Trump, even on the way on Air Force One, acknowledging Martha today that he's not sure he'll get a ceasefire out of this. He is hopeful and he is hopeful he gets this ceasefire coming out of this summit today. I want to bring in Mary Bruce inside the briefing room where both of these leaders are expected after the summit, after then the working session between the two delegations. They're expected to appear together, Mary, to address reporters from all over the world. The question is what, if anything, will they have achieved that they'll be able to share with with the world that will be watching.

And David and I can tell you, in addition to the world, that there are hundreds of reporters here, both the U. S. Press Corps, the Russian Press Corps as well, eager to ask President Trump and Vladimir Putin. A rare opportunity, we are hoping, to press Vladimir Putin on what progress they are able to make here today.

Now, the White House has said it is the plan for them to do this joint press conference. The president a little bit later said that would certainly be nice, but he also said, if this doesn't go well, well, he will just come out here and face questions on his own and then head home. But it is really remarkable to think that the two of them are now making their way to

that three-on-three meeting where they will discuss the future of Ukraine.

They are in the room now, we are told. We're expected to see some sort of images coming from that room. Mary Bruce, our thanks to you. Between these two leaders, again, they will have two top-level people from both administrations in the room with them, three on three, they're calling it, obviously, six people in the room. And as we await those images, I can tell you that, on the way to Anchorage, Alaska, President Trump said that, if it doesn't go his way, if it doesn't go well, I would walk.

And Mary alludes to that by saying the president has left open the possibility that he would address reporters from around the world on his own, if he has to. He said he's going to meet with Putin here in Alaska. I think it's going to work out very well. And if it doesn't, I'm going to head back home real fast. The president has talked in the last 24 to 48 hours.

And here we see the pictures right now, inside the summit room there in Anchorage, Alaska, the sprawling joint base Elmendorf-Richardson. Let's listen to the reporters as they try their best here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Back to the images from before. We're going to rewrite to the beginning of those images because again, that's the pool feed of what's playing out in the room. You can hear all the reporters trying to get questions in. You

can hear some of the advanced team is telling folks to get out of the room, meaning the moment is over. Now they work on the summit on their own, the six in that room. If we're able to cue up those images again, we'll surely share them with you. But what we have witnessed here today, obviously, is the landing of Air Force One in Anchorage, Alaska, the Russian president arriving a short time thereafter, President Trump coming down

those stairs, waiting at the red carpet for Vladimir Putin, a very warm embrace of the Russian leader. We have seen these two leaders at a summit before, you'll remember, in Helsinki during the first administration. It was during that summit, the president was asked during a joint press conference afterward, much like what they're talking about today, about Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The president, in so many words, said the president Putin said it wasn't Russia.

I have no reason not to believe him, essentially putting his faith in Vladimir Putin on that stage in front of the world over his own intelligence community back in Washington. That moment is something that really people on all sides of politics remember well. The question now, all these years later, is, will President Trump get what he wants going into this summit? He's given Vladimir Putin at least initially what Putin would like, which is a summit on American soil.

The White House had said leading up to this that this was in large part Vladimir Putin's idea. They came up with the location to do this in Alaska at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, obviously in Anchorage. They will meet together.

And Mary Bruce, we know this is going to be three on three. We did not know exactly who would be in that room. Now we know Steve Whitcoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be present as well.

And David, of course, they both bring their own unique strengths to this conversation. Steve Whitkoff, the president's special envoy, has been developing this really interesting relationship with the Russians and with Vladimir Putin

over recent months. He was instrumental in setting up this summit that we are seeing today that, of course, came together very hastily.

And of course, Marco Rubio, who notably has been quite harsh and critical of Russia and Vladimir Putin in the past, critical of Putin's invasion. That tone has somewhat softened in the last several months. But it will be interesting to get their perspective. And, of course, this is very different from what we saw the last time President Trump and Vladimir Putin met, when it was just them

and their translators, a decision that got a lot of pushback and sparked a lot of concern about just getting to the truth of what was actually discussed in that meeting. Now you have a broader, bigger delegation. We were mentioning, of course, that Vladimir Putin has shown an interest in broadening out the conversation beyond just ending the war in Ukraine, possibly to discuss nuclear arms cooperation, economic cooperation as well, and trade, so possibly an effort

by him to try and distract from what the president wants, which is that ceasefire. That while he doesn't want to say it, is truly how we are defining, I think, the success of this meeting. Is he able to get progress in any kind of inklings towards that ceasefire? It certainly is what Ukrainian President Zelensky is hoping will come out of this meeting. But the president has also been very blunt that, if that doesn't happen, well, he will just pack up and go home and go back to being the president of the United States and focusing on everything

else he has to focus on. Trump, though, is acutely aware of the power of the images here today. He is also aware of the criticism and the pushback that he has faced that simply meeting with Putin here today, allowing the world to see these images is giving Putin a win, but it is a gamble that President Trump is willing to take if it means that he can possibly make some progress towards

ending this war, David. But let me ask you, Mary, you mentioned Steve Whitkoff, obviously his trip, and I've been talking about this here, his trip to Russia that led to this summit, the Russian Federation saying, members of the Russian delegation saying, Whitkoff gave some signals that the U.S. would be open to a summit like this. Now we've seen it somewhat hastily arranged. It came together. It's playing out now in Anchorage, Alaska. You'd have to think that both sides here have been in communication leading up to

this moment. President Trump has even said in the last day or two that he looks forward to an additional summit during which President Zelensky would also be a part. He said that today they will talk about the future of Ukraine, will talk about the ceasefire and Air Force One. He was asked about by Rachel Scott, our own Rachel Scott, about land swaps, which is something

President Trump brought up. President Trump saying they will be discussed, but I've got to let Ukraine make that decision. And I think they'll make a proper decision. But for President Trump to say publicly in these last couple of days that he looks forward to this next step,

a summit that would include Vladimir Putin and President Zelensky of Ukraine, you know, would at least make you think that President Trump thinks going into this, there is room for some ground to be made here.

wants to very quickly get Putin and Zelensky in a room together. He even floated the possibility of bringing Zelensky here to Alaska. He wants to move quickly. And I certainly think it was welcome news for the Ukrainians and for President Zelensky to hear President Trump aboard Air Force One today saying that those details, you know, what an exchange of territory would look like what that land swap would entail that that's going to be up to Ukraine. So the president telegraphing that he is here to try and take

that initial step to really try and get these 2 leaders to the same table Ukraine has said though for that to happen they need that ceasefire first and the president president Trump

is certainly hoping for that as well we now.

We know that this that's his primary hope coming out of the summit he's been very public about that very honest about that and also quite honest about the chance that that might not happen and what he would do if that's the case. Mary stick with us here we have a cleaner feed if you will of the images of the two leaders meeting preparing to begin this summit. We can show you inside the room moments ago. As you can see, President Trump right there next to Vladimir Putin for a photo op. On each side are

the members of the delegations that will be in the room with them. We know that Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister for more than two decades, will be in the room along with Vladimir Putin. Also, Yuri Ushakov, Putin's top foreign advisor, former Soviet diplomat. He was the Russian ambassador to the U.S. from 98 until 2008. They'll be there with Vladimir Putin. We know Steve Whitkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio

will be there along with President Trump. There were a couple of feeds that came from the White House press pool, as we call it, of this particular moment. The other feed actually had some audio of reporters asking Vladimir Putin, will you commit to a cease-fire? Will you stop killing of civilians, make sure that there is a halt to any killing of civilians?

Obviously, Vladimir Putin did not engage. The moment we can play you that audio, they will let me know in my ear, and we will play it for you. But Jonathan Karl, our chief Washington correspondent, watching these images play out. John, you saw the warm reception on the red carpet.

As you point out, President Trump and his team at the White House have made it very clear that they believe up until now, nothing else has worked. And so as you alluded to earlier, this is sort of the home field advantage. That's the way president Trump sees this,

the red carpet, American soil, riding in the beast and the presidential motorcade. Vladimir Putin appeared very happy with that as well, smiling through those windows. The hard part though, John, is what comes next.

Absolutely. Look, Donald Trump has never been reluctant to embrace even pariah dictators around the world. The embrace of Kim Jong-un, the embrace of Vladimir Putin, the embrace of Hungary's President Orban, the former president of Brazil, the former president of the Philippines, he is very comfortable being face to face, arm in arm, smile to smile,

with people that are seen by much of the rest of the world as strongmen dictators. There's a very interesting moment, David, before this arrival, and that was the arrival of Sergei Lavrov, who, as you mentioned, will be in the meeting. The Russian, longtime Russian foreign minister, arrived in Alaska wearing a sweatshirt that had the initials of the USSR or CCCP in Russian emblazoned upon the front of his sweatshirt. This is significant because Vladimir Putin called the breakup of the USSR, the former

Soviet Union, one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century. Russia was just one of 15 nation states within the Soviet Union. And Vladimir Putin sees a country like Ukraine, which was one of the member states of the USSR, of the Soviet Union, as effectively Russian territory. Not just the East, not just what the negotiations are theoretically going to be about now, but the entirety of Ukraine.

And by the way, the fear in Europe is that Putin sees much of the rest of what was the Soviet Union the same way. This is why Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the other republics, former republics of the Soviet Union are so fearful of what is happening in Ukraine. They fear that if Putin gets away with what he's done in Ukraine, he won't stop with Ukraine.

John, as you know, on Air Force One on the way to Anchorage, President Trump was asked, you know, what will make success of this summit today? As we look at these initial pictures of the two leaders meeting, Vladimir Putin being greeted there in Anchorage, I want to let our viewers at home listen in to that moment on Air Force One when the president was asked, how will you call this summit a success? What do you expect out of it

in order to consider it a success on the backside? And here's what the president said a short time ago.

I can't tell you that. I don't know. There's nothing set in stone. I want certain things. I want to see a ceasefire. This is not to do with Europe. Europe's not telling me what to do. But they're going to be involved in the process, obviously, as well. So let's keep it. I want to see a ceasefire rapidly. I don't know if it's going to be today, but I'm not going to be happy

if it's not today. Everyone said it can't be today. But I'm just saying to stop the killing. You know, we're not putting up any money. We're making money. They're buying our weapons and we're sending them to NATO and NATO is sending us big, beautiful checks. But I don't care about that. I care about it was a big factor when Biden spent $350 billion and got nothing.

But what I do care about is they lost last week 7,011 people were lost, almost all soldiers. 36 people in a town which got hit by a missile, but over 7,000 soldiers.

It's crazy.

That's President Trump on Air Force One on the way to Anchorage, Alaska, when asked how will you deem this a success? He said, I simply do not know at this point. We'll see what comes of this. Obviously, the president has said going into the summit,

though, that he wants a ceasefire. He wants it rapidly and that he would like it today. Said he would not be happy if he comes out of this summit without a ceasefire. I want to bring in retired Colonel Steve Gagnard, ABC News analyst and consultant and Steve, you and I were talking before we came on the air here just about where Ukraine stands right now. He joins us

from our Washington bureau and Steve, you've got the map of where Ukraine was before the war and where it stands now after the invasion. Just bring our viewers at home up to speed on how much of the land there in the east that the

Russians now control. Yeah David, this is a map that shows three and a half years ago where you see here's the totality of Ukraine, here are the small areas that were owned by partisan separatists in Crimea, and this part of the Donbas. Let's move forward to today. We see the region here, it's about 20% of Ukraine that the Russians have taken control of. So this is the front line here that delineates where the fighting is occurring.

You can see that here what we have is Russians controlling this part of eastern Ukraine. And if we look about here, sorry, we can see what the Russians actually want. We know that Putin has come into these negotiations and he has said, I want the rest of Donetsk. I want to be able to say, this part is mine that I don't owe. This part of Zaporizhia I want. I want this down at Kherson.

But the real goal is to get the rest of the Donbas here. Why? Because it's a rich agricultural area. It's where the majority of industrial production comes from. And underneath the ground there is critical minerals like titanium and lithium and coal. And so this is the consolation prize.

There's no way that Ukraine can accede to this kind of releasing this much territory to Putin. So, as the president has said, he's not going to negotiate today on who gets what. But this is what the expectation is that Putin is going to ask for. It will be a very difficult negotiation because neither Putin can show much leeway and Zelensky

cannot afford to give up this much of Ukrainian territory. That's really the rub here Look at how significant that area is in the eastern part of Ukraine Steve leave those circles right up there Actually, if you want to throw them back up because they're super helpful for our audience Okay, you know in the east right there right behind Steve anywhere where there are stripes along that eastern region of Ukraine That's where Russia has made significant advances since this invasion and Steve all those circles that you just put back on the map a steep points out

that's what they want in addition to the area where they have made strategic advances. Reuters and other agencies estimate up to 20% of Ukraine is now in Russia's hands and Steve this is going to be the central question of these discussions. Even if they get the ceasefire today, then you're gonna get, you know,

Trump would like to get both Zelensky and Putin together at a table, perhaps with President Trump as well, to talk about how to divvy up this land. It's pretty hard to imagine Russia agreeing to give up their desire here, and Ukraine agreeing to give up any land that was rightfully theirs before this invasion began.

Yeah, very difficult and that's where the negotiations are going to get drawn out. It's going to take months for them to come. They may get a ceasefire, perhaps President Trump will get the next step which is to get Zelensky to the table. There may be a ceasefire, but a permanent ceasefire is going to take months to negotiate. David, this front line is about 600 miles, so that's roughly the distance between, say, Atlanta and Miami.

That gives you an idea of how long this is. This 20 percent of Ukraine that the Russians have taken over, as you note, over 200,000 dead. That's what Mr. Putin has to show, 20 percent of Ukraine for more than a million casualties on both sides. Incredible casualties on both sides.

Incredible toll on both sides, civilians lost. You think about the families, and we've seen the pictures both in Ukraine and in Russia, the families laying loved ones to rest who fought on both sides of this war. Steve Ganyad, our thanks to you. Let's go back to these pictures from just moments ago as we wrap up this part of our live coverage today. Again, President Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, arriving before Vladimir Putin, then greeting

the Russian leader when he arrived on the red carpet there, saluting, obviously, the troops, but also giving a very warm welcome to Vladimir Putin after they had that photo op there on the stage of Alaska 2025 there. We then watched as President Trump invited Vladimir Putin. Certainly this wasn't a surprise to the White House team. This has all been planned out.

Invited him in the presidential motorcade, the beast as we call it, to ride together to this summit. We saw those moments when Vladimir Putin waved through the window of the presidential motorcade smiling, at least for this chapter and in this moment, it would seem this is what Vladimir Putin wanted, to be invited to American soil, something that

we have not seen in more than a decade, a meeting of this magnitude, a summit, and there you see it, Vladimir Putin smiling inside the motorcade. President Trump leading into this saying there's a 25% chance that this could fail, but he's made it very clear that what he wants is a ceasefire. President Trump would like to then broker a second summit where he has both Vladimir Putin and President Zelensky at the table.

Our coverage continues on ABC News Live, abcnews.com. I'll be back with a special edition of World News Tonight, and then we'll be coming on the air live coverage here on ABC of the joint press conference with President Trump, Vladimir Putin, and reporters from all over the world asking how it went. I'll see you then.

Good day.

This has been a special report from ABC News.

David, thanks so much. I'm Kira Phillips. Well, touching down in Anchorage, Alaska, the tale of two presidents, it may be historic, but it's a gamble. The red carpet rolled out for both presidents,

F-22s flanking their walk. Trump and Putin together after shaking hands and receiving a B-2 bomber flyover. Now the burning question, will they deliver a deal? It's been more than a decade since Russian President Vladimir Putin has been invited

to the U.S. for a meeting with an American president. And now we've learned this one-on-one will actually be a three-on-three. Both presidents will be joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy to Russia Steve Whitkoff. Putin will also have his two closest advisors with him, his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and also his advisor, Yuri Ushakov.

First question yelled to Putin from reporters right there on the tarmac, can the US trust your words? And when will you stop the killing? I'm sure President Trump would like to hear the answers to those questions too.

Our chief foreign correspondent Ian Pannel joining me now out of Kiev. I guess Ian, since you are there in Ukraine, I'm sure this is a tough sight for Ukrainians to stomach.

Yeah, Kyra, I think you're absolutely right. I think Ukrainians are sick at looking at these images. Remember, Russian leader Vladimir Putin is a man who has been charged with war crimes. His troops have been accused by the United Nations of others of raping people, of murdering people, of occupying illegally territory, of pillaging, of stealing property. Repeatedly, this has been documented by war crimes investigators and others. And yet the leader of the country that ordered this invasion, this large-scale invasion three and a half years ago,

is now walking the red carpet in the United States, is being greeted with open arms, with a warm handshake, is given a personal one-on-one ride in the beast, the presidential vehicle in the motorcade, and is now in a high value, a high-stakes meeting with President Trump. So yes, Ukrainians will be less than happy at this. They've been living in fear night after night, day after day for three and a half years. And something in their

minds must come out of it to justify bringing Vladimir Putin in from the cold and giving him this kind of reception.

Martha Raddatz, our chief global affairs correspondent. You know, Putin's been called the ultimate manipulator, Trump the ultimate dealmaker. How do you see this playing out, Martha?

Well I think, first of all, it's almost impossible to tell what will happen from this meeting. Obviously, this is something Donald Trump wants very badly. We just got a clip from a Fox News interview where he said, I won't—Donald Trump said, I won't be happy if I walk away without some form of a ceasefire. I say this, and I've said it from the beginning. This is really setting the table today.

We are going to have another meeting if things work out, which will be very soon, or we are not going to have any more meetings at all, maybe ever. So, as we've talked about for the last weeks, President Trump will sometimes criticize Vladimir Putin, and sometimes he will not. Sometimes he will criticize Zelensky. So it is really this foreign policy, keep them guessing. But today, just as Ian just said, for the Ukrainians watching that scene and that red carpet and smiling from the beast is devastating to Ukrainians.

President Zelensky, as you recall very well, Kyra, back in February was in the Oval Office. That did not go well, to say the least. He was basically humiliated in that Oval Office meeting. And then they went on to the Vatican and had a very good meeting. But for Zelensky to have to watch Vladimir Putin, who invaded his country—we can't say that enough—it was Vladimir Putin who invaded Ukraine, for him to watch this now and not be here, and also know that it was Vladimir Putin who said he couldn't come.

President Trump wanted that trilateral meeting, but in the end agreed to the meeting with just Putin. But if they come out with some sort of deal, if they come out with a ceasefire, that is good news. The big question is, even if they get some sort of ceasefire, will it hold? Will Vladimir Putin keep his word, Cara?

Martha, thank you. Ann Simmons, former Moscow bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal. She has been in the room with Vladimir Putin. She has met with Vladimir Putin. You heard Martha and Ian both talking about the hearts of Ukrainians, sickened to see the two presidents shake hands like this on the red carpet, especially when Putin is the one that's responsible for killing thousands and thousands of innocent people.

With that said, Anne, what do you think? Is this the way to get a ceasefire?

Well, thank you, Keira. I should just say that I've been in the room in press conferences with Vladimir Putin, but it's an understatement to say that this is such a momentous moment. Watching Putin arrive in the United States to such a warm welcome from the United States president, President Trump, is absolutely remarkable. Now Putin has come into the States thinking, yes, you know, I have the upper hand. In fact, the greeting, the warm welcome that he received kind of confirmed that, that he is welcome in this country.

It does not matter what he has done. He has made no concessions at all before this meeting with the U.S. president. And it's interesting to note that the delegation that he's come with, and who will be in the room meeting with President Trump, consists of, of course, a foreign minister and also a very top foreign aide, Ushakov. And that tells me also that they're looking to kind of normalize diplomatic relations with Lavrov, the foreign minister in the room.

They're going to be talking about, I'm sure, restaffing the embassies, reopening the consulates between them. And then, of course, you know, that with Ushakov, the foreign policy minister, or the foreign policy minister or the foreign policy aid, there's going to be a lot of talk about, you know, where the two foreign policies can align and where can they align. Is it going to be over Ukraine and, you know, whether or not there will be indeed be a ceasefire

in Ukraine. President Trump needs some kind of tangible result out of this meeting because he has promised to end this conflict. It's high stakes also for the Russians because President Putin, even though he's already won because he's gotten this fantastic audience in the United States, he still needs to bring back to his people that yes, I'm victorious.

Yes, we're going to win this war. And yes, we've made no concessions. Of course, for Ukraine, the status of the country hangs in the balance. They need security guarantees. And that's what, of course, the Europeans have been trying to push forward for them. It's critical for Europe as well, because of course there is worry that if President

Putin gets his way in Ukraine, he's going to go further and maybe a NATO country will be next under threat like Poland or the Baltic states. So this is so significant. This is so monumental.

And it'll be interesting to see what comes out of these meetings. And stay with me. Really appreciate your insight. Our chief White House correspondent, Mary Bruce, who's there on the ground, actually in the room where Putin and the president just were sitting in those chairs. I guess, first of all, Mary, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you what it was like to be in the room. Did either president answer any of the questions?

What were the reporters yelling at them? Did you get any kind of color from the two presidents in that short moment they were

in there with all of you? Well, Kara, I'm actually in the room where they're expected to be later today for that press conference that we are, have been told will be happening. The expectation is that Putin, for now, the expectation is that he will be joining President Trump here at these podiums this afternoon. I wasn't physically in the room for that brief photo availability. But based on what we saw in those images, this was a quite a scrum.

I think we've all been in those 10 scrums. It was a bit of a scramble for the press to get in there, get those images. Reporters certainly did their best to shout as much as they could to try and get some questions to Vladimir Putin. I believe he was asked, will you agree to a cease-fire? Why can you trust Vladimir Putin? But no dice. They did not want to respond. They want to get down to business. The body language of these things is always interesting. Certainly, they looked a bit more serious there as they were sitting side by side, but

that was quite the friendly welcome on the tarmac. I think you could even describe it as chummy. And President Trump has argued that that is part of the strength that he brings to these conversations, that he knows Vladimir Putin, that he knows how to negotiate. He said yesterday that he's not going to – that he doesn't think Vladimir Putin's going to mess around with him. But also, in recent weeks, we have heard President Trump taking a bit of a harsher tone with

Vladimir Putin. He's been critical of him for telling him one thing and then being misleading and going out and continuing to launch missiles against Ukraine. The big question, one of many here today, is whether the president will take that tougher tone into this meeting, because he's making very clear today that he wants a ceasefire coming out of this, that that is how he is defining a win.

And he is hoping that, with that ceasefire, he can then use that to get Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky together in a room to actually hammer out how they might end this war. European leaders, Zelensky, want that ceasefire first and we know the president does to whether he's going to get it. We will learn at some point here in this room later this afternoon.

And thank you for pointing out the difference of rooms, Mary things are happening so fast from them landing there on the tarmac to being shuffled into that small room to now where you are I just one more question if you don don't mind, about the press conference that's supposed to happen. Everybody, especially back here at home, is talking about that press conference.

And if the two presidents will actually come out and take questions from you and all the other correspondents in the room, it would be quite remarkable if that could happen. There has been talk that it might not happen, that Putin may not do it, that it might just be Trump, that Trump may get frustrated that he's not getting anywhere with President Putin and he might just take off and put an end to it.

What's your sense, since the room is set up, there's reporters there, you are there, do you really think this is going to happen? And if so, I'm curious what your first question would be be Mary.

Well, I can't give that away care, but what happens here later depends on what's happening right now in this bilateral meeting between the 2 leaders if they're able to make progress I think it's more likely you will see the 2 of them come out here together to tout to the world what they've achieved. The White House has said that the plan is for

Putin to join Trump here later this evening. The White House has said that the plan is for Putin to join Trump here later this evening. The president, President Trump, has said that would be nice, but he says if the meeting doesn't go well, well, then he'll just come out here and answer questions on his own and then head home, which certainly is in line with what he's been saying today and in recent days, which is that if this doesn't go well, he's just gonna walk. He's gonna essentially go back to his other duties as President of the United States. And walking away from this without a ceasefire

certainly would be viewed as a loss, for sure.

All right, and as we approach the 4 p.m. Eastern hour, and now we know both presidents are in the room together, each of them with their two advisors, Mick Mulroy. You know, this is your bailiwick. You've been paying close attention

to what's happening here. You have had experience in the room with deal making and negotiations like this. When you saw these two presidents finally land, they're in Anchorage, shake hands, walk the red carpet, see those F-22s, and then watch them ushered into the room. What were your thoughts and what do you think is going to happen

here? So my first thought was if there is a ceasefire, Kyra, this is going to be a big win, not only for the United States for setting this up, but obviously for Ukraine. But if there's not a ceasefire, President Putin may have way overplayed his hand, because he might turn what he considers a friend into an adversary, because they essentially set this up for this to happen. And if he just doesn't agree to it, this will be, I think, an embarrassment to the United States.

So I think we should all be hoping that he chooses the former, which is a ceasefire. And of course, it is good to have your key people in the room, like the Secretary of State

and like your special envoy.

Well, we all know President Trump does not like to be embarrassed. Mick Mulroy, thank you, and thanks to our entire panel. So glad you're with us. We have continuing ABC News Live coverage here of President Trump's summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

Our Kana Whitworth picks it up right now.

Kana.

And our thanks to Kira and the entire ABC News Live team.

I'm Kana Whitworth here in Los Angeles. And we continue now with that special coverage of the high stakes summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, of course, as the United States seeks to secure a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. The president and Putin seem shaking hands here after arriving at the military base in Anchorage.

This happened just a short time ago. Trump departing earlier from Washington just after sunrise while his Russian counterpart left from his country's Far East region. Both leaders looking to make progress on an agreement that could determine the future of the war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, of course, not in attendance at this summit, but certainly is closely watching from Kiev, saying that he is hoping for a strong result, adding that his country is quote counting on America and that everything will depend on this. Now we do have special team coverage of this summit and

we want to start with our ABC News chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce she's live there in Anchorage for us. So first of all Mary we know just a short time ago here the president landed in Alaska, that this won't be a one-on-one meeting. Right now it's a three-on-three meeting. Can you sort of lay that out for us?

Who all will be in that room? And that three-on-three meeting is happening right now. The president is meeting with Vladimir Putin, a historic, shocking moment, I think, for much of the world when you consider how isolated Vladimir Putin has been from the West ever since he invaded Ukraine three and a half years ago. And yet, in just the last hour, we have seen President Trump quite literally rolling out

the red carpet, welcoming Vladimir Putin with quite a friendly, chummy welcome that they had there on the tarmac. And now they are sitting down to try to get to business. And unlike their last meeting, this is not just Putin and President Trump with just translators. President Trump is also joined by two aides. So is Vladimir Putin.

President Trump has brought in Steve Whitkoff, his special envoy, who has played such a critical role in getting to this point. He was vital to facilitating this meeting that is happening here today. He also has spent a lot of time working this relationship. He has spent a lot of time in Russia building those connections and discussing how to possibly end the war that is all leading to this moment here this afternoon.

And then also Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, which is interesting because he has been quite critical of this invasion. He has been quite critical of Vladimir Putin in the past. That criticism has somewhat softened in recent months. But they bring an interesting balancing act, Whitkoff with that relationship that he's been able to cultivate with the Russians and with Putin himself, and, of course, Secretary of State Rubio, who has that – brings that

foreign policy heft to the discussion as well. The big question, what is going to come of this? And we really are getting a better sense, even just in the last several hours, of what the president wants out of this, what he sees as a success. He's making it clear and talking to reporters on his way here to Alaska that he wants a cease-fire to come out of this.

He's making it clear also that he doesn't think it's his job to negotiate a deal. He says, you know, Ukraine has to be at the table for that. But he says he wants a ceasefire coming out of this meeting today and that that will set the table for what he hopes is another meeting soon to come with all three of them, Putin,

Zelensky and Trump at that table.

Right. And it's been really interesting to see how the president's rhetoric has changed, Mary, to now setting the table for that hopeful trilateral meeting. You're there, of course, in the room where we also hope that the president and Putin will have perhaps a joint press conference after this meeting as well.

What more do we know about the run of day here, Mary?

Yeah, well, that is the expectation. The question is whether or not they actually come out here and answer questions together. Depends, I think, in large part on what happens in this actual bilateral meeting between the two sides.

If they are able to make some progress, I think it's more likely you will see Putin come out here side by side with President Trump and answer questions here. I can tell you there are hundreds of reporters here, of course, the U.S. press, the White House press corps, and also the Russian press corps as well. Vladimir Putin doesn't often take questions from the press, certainly not Western journalists, so it will be quite a moment if this does indeed happen. The White House has said it is the plan for Putin to come out here side by side with Trump.

The president himself said that would be nice, though he also said if this doesn't go well, he'll just come out here and answer questions by himself, and then he'll head home. And that's in line with what we've been hearing from him this morning, which is that if this doesn't go well, then he's, you know, just going to move on. And that, in many ways, would certainly be a win for Putin as well, if the American president were to sort of take a step back and this were to continue without a ceasefire, without a deal, without any future negotiations.

Right, setting those expectations. And Mary, in terms of a possible trilateral meeting if that were to happen. We know the president has also been vocal about how he would like that to play out. Right. Even having that happen perhaps in Alaska with Zelensky.

Yeah.

He had said yesterday that while he thought there was, you know, a 25 percent chance that this whole meeting will fail, he says if it doesn't, he then does and they are able to get that ceasefire, then he wants to move quickly to having the three of them finally in the room together. And remember, the president, President Trump, was pushing for this to be a trilateral meeting from the get-go.

He wanted this to be Putin, Zelensky, and Trump all coming together. Putin nixed that idea. That wasn't going to happen. So instead, the president here just face to face, sitting down with Putin. But his hope is that if they can make progress today, if they can get that ceasefire, or enough progress towards a ceasefire, enough of a commitment to that, that he very quickly wants to move to getting all three of them together in the room. He said even possibly bringing Zelensky right here to Alaska.

Kena.

Quite a goal there, as we know that President Putin did not want him to be involved in this original meeting. Mary Bruce, always wonderful to be with you. Thank you. I wanna bring in our ABC News contributor and former commander of US forces in Korea, retired Army General Robert Abrams.

Thank you for being here with us. And I'd like to start where Mary Bruce ended in terms of a ceasefire here. From a military perspective, can you walk us through the different scenarios of what a ceasefire could really look like? What are the certain terms that they possibly could agree on?

Well, Kate, I think, you know, it's they're going to have to put on the broad parameters. There's many types of ceasefires, right? The ultimate goal would be to have a ceasefire on air, in the air, on the land and in the sea, in the cyber domain, in the electronic warfare domain, I think that's a long, long reach. So a ceasefire in some of those domains, I think, would be certainly a great start. And it would be something that they could build upon, right, as a confidence-building measure. So we'll just, like Mary said, we're going to have to see how this conversation

goes and how can they at least get a head start or at least an initial start on a ceasefire of some sort. If you listen to the president, he's focusing on the death and destruction and principally the death and the wounded, principally in Ukraine. He wants that to stop. So I suspect that the initial effort will be a ceasefire in the land and the air domain to get the Russians and the Ukrainians to stop killing each other.

And you think that perhaps would go into effect almost immediately to then allow for further

negotiations? Well, I think, look,

in large-scale contingency operations, a war, that by the way, Russia and Ukraine have been fighting for over 11 years. I'm in the camp of this war started in 2014. So getting it to stop immediately is relative. I'd say probably within 24 hours of an announcement.

But again, remember, following whatever agreement is made between these two leaders, there's going to have to be an agreement by President Zelensky and the Ukrainians to agree to the conditions if there are any conditions to the ceasefire. I think the best case for everybody concerned is a unconditional ceasefire in some of those domains. And then we can then we can proceed to have meaningful dialogue on the way forward.

I'm curious as to what your thoughts are on the term land swap. It's something we keep hearing might be possibly part of these discussions, as well as security guarantees for Ukraine?

Yeah, well, I mean, look, the the the Ukrainians have been crystal clear in their position that they are. The president Zelensky is not prepared, nor is the country prepared or willing to cede any of the territory that Russia has illegally invaded. Again, going back to 2014, the two Eastern provinces, and then of course, Crimea, and then everything that's occurred since February of 2022. Russia says, hey, that's ours now.

The Ukrainian constitution says, no, that would have to be a decision by the Ukrainian parliament and ultimately the Ukrainian people. So this is a huge point of contention, Kana. That's what both leaders have stated publicly, Putin and Zelensky. It's different when you're in the room for actual negotiations of this level of importance.

So I think we're just going to have to wait and see on that.

And in terms of who's in the room for this one, we know the president is joined today by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as well as his top military advisor, top NATO commander in Europe. They will be around today, but in the room, right, it's Secretary of State Marco Rubio as well as Steve Whitcoff what kind of advice or input do you imagine them bringing to this meeting.

Well I think all of that preparation happened on in the days leading up to this meeting in the last week. And on on and on the ride on Air Force one if either or both were on Air Force one that's where that preparation happened. You know when when the president got off the airplane today, he's acting as the president of the United States. He's had all the preparation he needs.

And as I think Mary said, Secretary Rubio and Mr. Whitcoff, they're there in listen mode only, unless called upon.

Listen mode only, unless called upon. Listen mode only, unless called upon. I think that's really interesting insight. General Robert Abrams, thank you, as always, for being here with us. I want to now bring in our ABC News contributor and associate editor for The Washington Post, Mary Jordan, along with former U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Daniel Bair.

Thank you both for being here with us. And first of all, Mary, the term success is being thrown around a lot here, but in terms of what does success look like for the United States, for President Trump coming out of the summit today?

Well, it just got a lot harder because the images that we've seen, the fact that those pictures of a smiling Trump, shaking hands, just really increased the pressure on Donald Trump to deliver. Because if he doesn't, and it is a monumental task, people will say this was an embarrassment to the states. Because

many, many people in Europe will not let him land in their country. Our allies say he's a war criminal. He's the one who invaded a country with a democratically elected president and he started a bloodbath. Success just got a lot harder because Donald Trump is taking a big risk here, and Donald Trump doesn't want to lose. But this is really one of the toughest things to do, because people have been shouting already at Vladimir Putin, can we believe your word? Well, the reason they're saying that is he may say something, as he said, unequivocally,

he said there was no interference by Russia in the 2016 election. Well, our U.S. intelligence says there was. So it's a big task. Even when, if he does agree to something, will he stick with it? Donald Trump, to get a success, it's not going to be easy. But if he does, it's huge.

It certainly is. And you're right to point out the power of the images here that we're seeing. But also, Mary, what do you think about the win for Russia here? Is it just arriving at this meeting on American soil?

It's a very big deal. And, you know, Vladimir Putin controls the media, and there's a lot of Russian media there and they're beaming those photos. He's not allowed to land in most places in Europe, but here he is on American soil. Big, powerful Russia is back. That's what this message is sending, that they're back. So it is a big win right now, definitely. Back there, they're saying things like, are the Americans getting played by this guy? He didn't even give anything up. He didn't

agree to a ceasefire, and yet he's riding in the beast with the U.S. president. They rolled out the red carpet. But all of that will go away if something here happens to stop the killing. As we heard Donald Trump say, just last week, 7,000 more soldiers died and more civilians. So right now, pressure is up on Trump. It's a win for Putin. But boy, this is not over yet. And all of these images where people are saying, oh, my God, I mean, is this just a naive American

president against a spymaster, a former KGB officer whose 25 years been in power for a reason because he's a smart tactician.

So, we'll see. As we know, Russia is also not suffering from any additional sanctions that were, you know, threatened to be levied on August 8th. That day has come and gone. But here we are at this meeting that we know President Putin wanted and that President Putin did not want Zelensky to attend. And so, Daniel, as you've been analyzing this, it's interesting because you sort of have this

insight here of perhaps no deal might actually be some kind of good news. What do you mean by that?

Well, I mean, I want there to be a deal. Let's be clear, a ceasefire would be a big win for the president. It would be a big win for Ukraine and a big win for the world. I think that the question is whether what the terms of that deal would be. Certainly, it's very possible that President Trump could feel tempted to take a bad deal, a deal that goes over the Ukrainian's heads, over the Europeans' heads, and violates the red lines that he set with the Europeans before the meeting this week. Coming into this meeting, President Trump and President Putin have two very different objectives.

President Putin wins already, as Mary was saying, by these images that are going back to Russia and around the world that make President Putin look big. By getting the meeting, he's already won. And President Putin wins if he gets to buy time. He got a reprieve from the threat of additional sanctions

by having this meeting. He'd like to buy more time because, as far as he's concerned, no ceasefire is fine because he believes he can win on the battlefield. President Trump has to kind of turn that around and manage to get a ceasefire without giving

away the farm.

And that is a heavy task.

It certainly is. And you mentioned the different objectives here in the leaders. Let's not forget that Zelensky also has really an entirely different objective as well. And so, Daniel, if there's no deal today, we've heard the president say he will come out, he will address the media, he will go back home. But really, what happens after that?

Time will tell. I mean, one of the things that President Trump seems to have learned this spring, I think you'll remember that a few months ago he kind of said that he was going to wash his hands of the whole situation and walk away. The United States remains, whether we like it or not, the United States remains fundamental to world leadership, and the United States can't walk away from problems that threaten

global security as this one does. And so I expect that we will get involved again. But certainly Zelensky and Trump both really want to cease fire. And so should Russia. I mean, Russia has, according to the most recent reports, possibly passed one million casualties from this war earlier this summer.

That's an enormous number. To put that in a proportional perspective, that would be as if the United States had 3 million casualties in a war. It's just unthinkable. So President Putin, if he were representing the Russian people,

which he doesn't, he should want a cease-fire, too, to end the killing, and then there would need to be a political negotiation about how to get to a peace, because there's a big

difference between a ceasefire and a peace. There's no question about that. Obviously, people wonder then does President Putin keep his word? I'm Mary Jordan, Daniel Bair. Our thanks to both of you. And we have more special coverage ahead here of the historic summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin pushing for a path toward peace in Ukraine.

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Tonight the Trump Putin summit. The two leaders meeting face to face with the fate of Russia's war with Ukraine at stake. And Aaron officially becomes the first Atlantic hurricane of the season. Where it's heading now.

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And welcome back. Today's historic meeting in Alaska is Vladimir Putin's 49th meeting with the U.S. president. It's also his seventh meeting with President Trump, who has changed his tone toward the Russian leader in his second term. ABC chief global affairs correspondent and this week co-anchor

Martha Raddatz has more on their relationship.

President Trump's hot and cold relationship with President Putin is taking center stage at the summit in Anchorage, Alaska. It's the first time the two world leaders will get a chance to hash out contrasting priorities for Russia's war with Ukraine. Already, Russian state media is dubbing it a win for Russia, since Ukrainian President Zelensky is not invited,

at Putin's insistence. And the summit is taking place on soil that Russia once owned. It is Putin's first visit to the United States in 10 years. Trump met with Putin six times in his first term and had banked on his friendly relationship with the Russian president to promise a peace deal

even before he became president.

We have a very good relationship, and I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with President Putin.

A deal, he said, would be made quickly.

They're dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I'll have that done.

I'll have that done in 24 hours.

But more than six months into his second term, that promise has not become reality, and the relationship has at times soured. In May, Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social, calling Putin absolutely crazy for his attacks on Ukraine, which he said needlessly kill a lot of people. After a heavy drone assault on Ukraine last month, Trump unleashed a string of criticism.

I'm very unhappy with them. There's no reason for this. We get a lot of thrown at us by Putin for you want to know the truth. He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.

Trump's irritation turning into threats of hefty tariffs and new sanctions if Putin didn't agree to a ceasefire before a set deadline. That deadline passed and going into the summit, Trump is renewing his threats.

Will Russia face any consequences if Vladimir Putin does not agree to stop the war after

your meeting on Friday?

Yes, they will.

What will the consequences be? There will be consequences.

Sanctions, tariffs?

There will be, I don't have to say, there will be very severe consequences, yes.

But at the same time, Trump seems to be adjusting expectations, suggesting that there might need to be a second meeting before a ceasefire materializes.

If the first one goes okay, we'll have a quick second one. I would like to do it almost immediately. And we'll have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelensky and myself if they'd like to have me there.

And in the final lead-up to the meeting, Putin is introducing a notable change to the agenda, telling reporters that he wants to discuss a nuclear arms deal. With all the back-and-forth, experts are wondering if Putin is playing Trump.

We haven't managed to achieve a ceasefire, we haven't managed to achieve any peace. One has the impression that probably President Putin may have got the better of President Trump.

For some, memories of Trump's 2018 Helsinki meeting with Putin are still fresh. Even as Trump's own intelligence experts were telling him that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, Putin convinced him that Russian interference didn't happen. We'll soon find out if Trump has now gained the upper hand in the relationship.

President Trump is a fast learner and I think he has in this presidency gained a

degree of self-confidence.

High stakes for Trump going into the meeting and a test of whether Putin is ready to end the war or if he's trying to string Trump along.

And our thanks to Martha Raddatz for that report. Of course, we have more special coverage ahead here today of this historic summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. You saw the two leaders greeting each other there as there's a push towards a path for peace.

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And welcome back. We continue our special coverage of the high-stakes summit between President Trump and Vladimir Putin. And just moments ago, both leaders walking down a long red carpet laid out between two military aircraft. ABC News Christiane Cordero is joining me now from Anchorage, Alaska.

Christiane, wonderful to be with you. We know that the two leaders are meeting right now. They're joined with other leaders as well. Any details from this meeting? What do we know so far?

Well, Kana, it's just remarkable, some of these images, right? Seeing the red carpet certainly made it feel real, all of this anticipation that was building up. And how fascinating to see President Trump welcoming Vladimir Putin, the two men smiling, shaking hands, walking side by side down that red carpet and sitting in the room, you know, that the reporters got an access to for a brief moment in time, but certainly enough time to paint that picture of Putin and the Russian delegation sitting centrally across side by side with President Trump and a few members of the U.S. delegation, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of State

Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff. And on the backdrop of that, a banner that says pursuing peace. What of substance comes of this meeting will be incredibly consequential as we know of course Kena

going forward. Absolutely it certainly will be. Christian Cordero our thanks to you. I'm Kena Whitworth here in Los Angeles and thank you so much for streaming with us. We have more special coverage ahead again of this historic summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is the moment here that Christian was telling us about where they two sat down and the media was allowed in there briefly.

This is the moment that we're hoping for, that the two leaders will address the media after their meeting is done. We know that they will only do that together though if there is something to share. You're watching ABC News Live. Stay with us.

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I'm Kanda Whitworth in Los Angeles, and we begin tonight with our special coverage of that high-stakes summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Now, just a short time ago, look at this. We saw a warm handshake between Trump and Putin. This happening at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. All eyes now on the diplomatic dance that's playing out as the U.S. seeks a ceasefire

between Russia and Ukraine. Earlier today, the White House confirming that the meeting will now be three on three, and there you see the men in this meeting. Trump will be joined by Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio. For more, I want to bring in ABC News' Patrick Rievel,

tracking the latest there from our London bureau. And first of all, Patrick, we know the president told reporters this summit, again, is going to be a three-on-three meeting. We laid that out. You saw who's going to be a part of this meeting. And it's essentially been told to us that Marco Rubio and Steve Woodcuff might just

be a speak-when-asked part of this meeting.

What's your take?

Yeah, Kayna, as you say, originally this meeting was supposed to be one-on-one between President Trump and President Putin, and then they added their close advisers, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, and also Steve Whitkoff, the special envoy who has played a crucial role, really, in even getting this summit arranged in the first place. Steve Whitkoff went to Moscow a week ago and met with Vladimir Putin, and during that meeting, Putin supposedly gave some kind of signal to Steve Whitkoff that persuaded President

Trump that it was worth meeting. Now, since then, European and Ukrainian officials have said that they don't really fully understand what it was that Putin said. It seemed to be related to territorial exchanges, but then there appeared to be some confusion, and actually the Kremlin denied that it had said any such thing to Whitkoff. So there is a lot of questions around exactly what he might have agreed, but I think it

does make sense that he would be in the room with President Trump. Vladimir Putin will have Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov there, as well as his closest foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov. And they—it also makes sense that they would be in the room if they are trying to discuss in detail a way of trying to get to a settlement for Ukraine. But after seeing these extraordinary pictures of Vladimir Putin being welcomed by President Trump, being applauded by President Trump as he walks up the red carpet, and being really

greeted very warmly, it will be interesting now to see whether President Trump is able to pressure Putin and try and move towards some kind of ceasefire or at least some kind of progress towards ending this war, Kena.

And it seems like ceasefire certainly is taking center stage right now, Patrick, because the president made it very clear that if there is additional negotiations, particularly with land, that he wants Ukraine to be a part of that, Patrick?

Yeah, so I think, Kenna, it seems now that the main thing that President Trump wants to get out of this meeting is another meeting, a second meeting between himself, President Zelensky, and Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Putin refused to allow Zelensky to attend this one. Now, we heard the president saying that he hopes it will happen. We heard from President Zelensky today saying that he also felt the main thing that can

come from this is getting in the same room later on as Vladimir Putin. I think that would actually be a step forward. Now, what we have heard from the Kremlin and from President Trump himself is that there will be no final peace agreement today. There is no way they are going to negotiate that. I think President Trump has said he wants a cease-fire, an immediate cease-fire. We heard him speak to Fox News just before he met with Vladimir Putin, saying that he will be — he won't

be happy if he does not get a cease-fire, if he walks out of the summit without one. But I think most people believe it's pretty unlikely. There is a possibility, though. I think Vladimir Putin will feel that he has to give something, he has to show some kind of willingness to President Trump. And one possibility that's been floated by the Kremlin and the media, for example, is that another — they could have another pause on long-range strikes into Ukraine, a mutual pause between Ukraine and Russia.

The problem is, they already tried that. Vladimir Putin declared that kind of truce before and then violated it himself. So I think it's going to be very difficult. But we will see whether any kind of progress can come out of this, or if Vladimir Putin, again, is just basically banking this summit, using it to string President Trump along,

Kayna. And if he does that, the images that we've already seen will speak volumes. Patrick Rievel, our thanks to you. Our ABC News contributor and former U.S. ambassador to NATO, retired Lieutenant General Doug Lute joining us now. And actually, I'd love for you to weigh in on what Patrick just mentioned there about

the possibility of these ceasefire talks being sort of narrowed down into some sort of agreement of just a pause in long-range missiles, that perhaps that's something the Kremlin might be willing to give up. Is that enough?

Well, I think most likely on the ceasefire front is potentially a partial ceasefire agreement, Putin, where Putin would agree that long-range strikes against energy infrastructure, and perhaps strikes at sea, in the Black Sea. Actually, these are two arenas in which the Ukrainian military is having some effect against Putin's forces. So these might be easy takings

for Vladimir Putin.

It certainly would be, and maybe perhaps an easy concession for him to get the ball rolling. But do you expect that President Trump will stick with the agreement that he has made with Zelensky and European allies to outline some of the red lines today? Do you think the meeting gets that far?

Perhaps. I think that if the U.S. side has in its grasp some form of ceasefire, even a temporary ceasefire bounded by time, or as we discussed, perhaps one bounded functionally at sea and with long-range strikes against energy, that would be enough for the president to believe he's

accomplished something with this first meeting.

And so then it's our understanding the president wants to have this trilateral meeting. And in that trilateral meeting, if it were to happen, they may start to discuss some of these land swaps, right? We know that Russia's war on Ukraine started over control of territory in the region. So help us make sense here of the implication of these territorial swaps.

Well, there's nothing magic about the territory here. I mean, Russia occupies something like just short of 20 percent of sovereign Ukrainian territory. And that occupation goes back to the previous invasion of Ukraine in 2014. So for some time now, more than a decade, Russia has occupied sovereign Ukrainian territory. But look, for Putin, this is not about that territory. It's not about that slice of Ukraine that he currently occupies. What Putin wants, and he's been relentless in this objective, is control overall of Ukrainian politics, Ukrainian freedom, and so forth. So this isn't fundamentally

about territory. This is fundamentally about, is Ukraine a sovereign independent state?

The other hand, is it controlled by the Kremlin?

The argument over sovereignty. What's your assessment, though, of the possibility that rare earth minerals make it into this negotiation? We know that there's a lot of rare earth minerals in that Donbass region, a region in which Russia has made tremendous advancement.

I don't think this will be a major feature. Yes, there are old surveys of the occupied areas that suggest that there are rare earth minerals there. But the energy infrastructure, the transportation infrastructure, the mining industry that would be required to actually bring those minerals to the marketplace are not in place. Much of the Donbas, much of the occupied area has literally been leveled. It's been destroyed by way of the Russian occupation. So if there's any mention of this,

it's a much longer term in the future dimension of the talks.

All right, interesting. Lieutenant General Doug Lute, always appreciate your insight. Thank you for being here with us. I now want to bring in the former deputy spokesperson for the US State Department, Vadam Patel. And back with us is former U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Daniel Bair. Thank you both for being here with us. And, Vadam, I'm curious as to your analysis here in sort of the changing posture that

we've seen from President Trump. He really has sort of lowered expectations almost as pressure seems to be ramping up on this summit. People really do feel like if there's no ceasefire, at least partial ceasefire agreement made, that perhaps this is considered a failure on the U.S. side.

Well, so good to be with you. I think first it's a couple of things. First and foremost, Putin has never been a credible actor or a credible stakeholder when it comes to this. He's had multiple opportunities since the onset of this invasion to pull back his forces, to pull back from Ukraine, and that's never happened.

And so I think expecting any kind of major breakthrough today, you know, I'm cautiously optimistic but who knows what can happen. And President Trump even has been sort of managing expectations on the ride over from Air Force One. But I think really what strikes me is just how atypical this summit is. It's clear that the White House wants Ukraine to be a centerpiece of today's summit, but without having Ukrainians at the table, without having any NATO allies at the table, it certainly sends a mixed message to our allies.

A mixed message to our allies that at this point feel like they are in lockstep with the president and what this means for Ukrainian security in the future. But also, Daniel, in terms of success, right, and what a ceasefire could look like, how they could walk away from this meeting deeming that a success. There seems to be a lot in the air of what a real ceasefire could look like. And our Patrick Rievel just mentioned something like it could just be another pause on long-range missile attacks. What do you think of that?

Look, a pause on long-range missile attacks would be good. That should be something that people endorse, but it's not enough. Obviously it won't end the killing. A lot of the killing that's going on right now is World War I style trench warfare, long range missiles are playing a part,

but they're not the whole deal. If there is a ceasefire that is, as previous speakers have said, perhaps on land and air, in the land and air domains, there will be really important technical work that follows from that on how to monitor that ceasefire.

There will be violations of it.

There will be accusations on both sides,

likely violations of it. And President Trump will need to be thinking about how he's holding President Putin accountable for any ceasefire that's put in place. And that's why maintaining the pressure in terms of the threat of sanctions

will be really important, as Secretary Pesent and President Trump did this past week, so that if the cease-fire is violated, there will be consequences for Russia, because if the cease-fire doesn't hold, the space for any kind of political discussion

about how to reach a peace will evaporate.

Well, and as Patrick pointed out here, they have tried this pause in long-range missiles before and that President Putin violated it quite quickly. Also, Vedant, we know that President Trump has promised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he would call him after the meeting, essentially bringing him up to date.

Do we know anything about his communications with other European leaders, though,

that might happen today? As we know, they appear to be stuck on the sidelines as well.

It's clear that the Europeans and President Zelensky spoke to Trump earlier in this week. That's great. I think it's incredibly important to keep the Ukrainians and our allies up to speed and informed about all the things that are happening. And one would hope that, in addition to calling

President Zelenskyy on his call sheet is NATO Secretary General Rutte, as well as their European leaders who have an important seat at the table. When we're talking about the future of European security, when we're talking about dealing with Putin and what is pretty clear, a maximalist goal of European influence, it's very vital that we keep our allies and partners informed.

And Daniel, I'm curious about your thoughts on images that speak very, very loudly today. We certainly saw the images of the president greeting President Putin. It was described by our Mary Bruce as quite chummy. But we also know that Sergei Lavrov, who has showed up as well in a sweatshirt that says USSR on it. So, Daniel, if Putin's ultimate goal is bringing Russia back to its former Soviet Union glory, how can Ukraine trust that they would honor any kind of ceasefire deal?

As General Lute said, this isn't about a slice of eastern Ukraine. This is about a long-term goal that Putin has had for a long time. And Foreign Minister Lavrov's trolling. Also, it was reported that the Russian propaganda machine that was on President Putin's plane, they were served chicken kiv for the meal. It makes one wonder whether they're taking this seriously or whether they see this as another attempt to play President Trump for time and

to buy time to wreak havoc and killing on the battlefield.

And then what's your what's your take on that?

I totally agree. I mean, what this is showing is that I think first and foremost, to take a step back, the only person who really matters here is President Putin. Lavrov, it's long been reported, his influence in the Putin inner circle continues to be waning. And what this is about is Putin's maximalist agenda for European and Ukrainian influence. And that's really what this is about. He continues to be incredibly worrisome of Ukraine aligning further and further with the West, whether it be with NATO, whether it be its own European aspirations,

and that's gotta be worrisome for him.

All right, Vena Patel, Daniel Bayer, our thanks as always to you for both of you and your analysis. We have more special coverage here of the historic summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin,

pushing towards a path toward peace. This is a look inside the room where the meeting is happening here. Again it's a three-on-three meeting. They have translators there as well. And then this is the moment that everyone is hoping for in the aftermath. There's two podiums there set up in the hopes that President Trump and President Putin will address the media with a unified message following their meeting today. You're watching ABC News Live.

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Welcome back today's meeting in Alaska is Vladimir Putin's 49th meeting with the U.S. president. It's also his seventh meeting with President Trump. This again is a look inside the room where they're meeting. They're meeting three on three, and you see the president there. He's sitting there with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as Special Envoy Steve

Whitcoff, who people say was instrumental in getting this meeting to happen. I want to bring in ABC News contributor and presidential historian Mark Updegrove for some perspective on this, because I know there certainly is some. First of all, this is unprecedented and historic in its own right, just the fact that Putin is stepping on U.S. soil for it.

You're absolutely right. You know, Donald Trump is almost the autocrat whisperer. He feels like he has this talent to talk to the pariahs of the world. We saw him do so in his first term in two high profile summits with Kim Jong-un. Nothing much came of them. The stakes are so high here. And as Trump has said many times, he gets along well with Vladimir Putin, but we haven't seen him step either. I think, Kyra, so much rides on this for Donald Trump's legacy.

Donald Trump came into his second term in office in his inaugural speech talking about wanting to be a peacemaker and a unifier. He hasn't governed as a unifier, and we haven't seen him make peace despite his promise that he would have peace here in 24 hours and then 100 days. It's been over 200 days. So much rides on this for Donald Trump, as well as the war in Ukraine, and as well as

the world, given what this may portend for America's role in the world going forward.

No question that the world is watching. And when you talk about peace there, you can see the backdrop behind President Trump and President Putin. It's red pursuing peace. So that certainly is the highlight in all of this. But also talk to us about the geographic location, the significance of this meeting being held in Alaska. I was reading the New York Times and they say Alaska in some ways can be an example of the fact that territorial lines move. You're absolutely right.

Alaska was sold to us by the Russians in 1867. It was called Seward's Folly because William Seward, the Secretary of State at the time, arranged for that purchase. It seemed like folly because what was up there? There wasn't much that could be found in Alaska until gold was found at the end of the 19th century. So this anchorage is as close to Moscow as it is from Washington. It's almost, in some ways, neutral territory insofar as it's equal distance to both of those capitals. But as you said, this was a property that was owned by Russia and purchased by us.

But so you're right.

These boundaries can move. And it should be noted, Kyra, that the reason that Russia sold us that property is because they didn't think they could defend it if the Americans or British made a play for Alaska.

That is an important context. And also we know, Mark, that when you look back in history, sometimes it is those images that seem to last forever. What is your analysis here of the images that were clearly planned today? You see this handshake, you see smiles.

Mary Bruce, I think accurately described it as quite chummy. What is your analysis of that?

Yeah, some of the most iconic moments in the presidency, Kena have come from these bilateral summits between an American president and a Russian president. We think back on FDR and the Yalta summit with Joseph Stalin, where they were determining the fate of Eastern and Western Europe in the wake of World War II. We think of Richard Nixon with Leonid Brezhnev trying to establish detente with the Soviet Union as Richard Nixon aimed to be a great foreign policy president.

And of course, remember the summits with Reagan and Gorbachev, where Reagan was trying to manage a clear triumph of America in the Cold War. So these are really, really important moments. I think President Trump understands stagecraft. He understands good television. And it really made good television. These are wonderful images, including that headline, pursuing peace that is in the background

as they sit and talk about the road forward in Ukraine, Kena.

And the other image I think that's really standing out to me right now, Mark, is the image of the two empty podiums that are waiting there in optimism that these two leaders will address the media with a unified message as they do pursue peace together. What a moment that would be if they both stood at those podiums together and if President Putin actually took questions

from Western journalists. This would be a triumph. We have to remember the carnage that has occurred in Ukraine since the war began over three years ago. And we can lose sight of that because it goes on day after day after day after day. We lost 58,000 troops, the American troops, in Vietnam, and that was a tragedy that hovered over this country for well over a generation. And so we don't know how many have died in the conflict in Ukraine, but probably tens of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have died, let alone the devastation in both

Ukraine and Russia given the drone strikes by the Ukrainians. So again, so much at stake, at stake from a humanitarian point

here, Kena, and we have yet to see what will come out of it.

And no question about that. And do they address the media? And then is there a trilateral meeting afterwards? We're all waiting and watching. Mark Updegrove, always wonderful to be with you. And we have more special coverage here of the historic summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, again pushing for a path toward peace. And it all started with this greet, this handshake and a smile. And the hopes is that it ends here with a unified message from the two leaders.

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I'm kind of worth welcome back to our special coverage of that high stakes summit between president Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin. President Trump hosting his Russian counterpart here at a military base in Anchorage, Alaska. These images capturing the moment the president greeted Putin on US soil. The first time Trump and Putin have met in person since 2019.

The Russian leader entering the presidential limousine, you see there, it's known as the beast. Putin could be seen laughing and smiling as the vehicle drove off. Now, the message of the summit is starting to gain some clarity. You see they're pursuing peace, both leaders sitting down in front of that blue backdrop that again reads, pursuing peace.

And they're alongside their delegates. Trump is expressing that he intends to secure a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. Visibly absent, as you know, is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who says that he is hoping for a strong result.

Now, we know the president has promised to call Zelensky after this meeting, and we will keep a close eye on all of that. Again, I'm Kana Whitworth here in Los Angeles. Thank you so much for streaming with us. This is right here, the beginning of this meeting. They've been in the meeting for some time now.

No readout yet. This is where we hope that the meeting ends, with the two leaders addressing the media together with some sort of unified message as the president wants to move toward a trilateral meeting with Putin, Zelensky and himself.

We have more special coverage ahead of the historic summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. You're watching ABC News Live.

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♪♪

I'm Kandace Whitworth here in Los Angeles. This is special coverage of that high stakes summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as the U.S. seeks a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. Now, the president and Putin shaking hands after arriving at a military base in Anchorage earlier today. Trump departing from Washington just after sunrise for this meeting, his Russian counterpart leaving from his country's Far East region, both of them looking to make progress on an

agreement that could determine the future of the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky not in attendance at this summit, but is watching closely from Kiev saying he's hoping for a strong result adding that his country is quote counting on America and that everything will depend on this now we have special team coverage on this ABC News Christian cordero is leading us off in Anchorage Alaska.

It's a sight never before seen in history, president Trump rolling out the red carpet today in Anchorage Alaska greeting Vladimir Putin as the 2 walk side by side F-22 fighter jets on the runway. Flying above, a reminder, if Putin needed one, of American military might. The U.S. yesterday flew in B-2 bombers to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. The two world leaders are trying to find a path to peace in Ukraine. Trump is sharing cautious optimism that today's meeting will be a crucial step.

I want to see a ceasefire rapidly. I don't know if it's going to be today, but I'm not going to be happy if it's not today.

Trump previously gave the meeting a 25 percent chance of ending in failure, but some experts believe Putin is ready to make a deal.

He really wants his meeting. You know, he's a pariah. his countrymen, you want he's actually not a pariah

with President Trump. In has escalated its attacks month for Ukrainian civili and overnight Ukraine's A launched new missile and drone strikes hitting 13 locations. Ukrainian President Zelensky, blocked by Putin from attending the summit, said,

we are counting on America. He's calling today's strikes a sign Putin is not prepared to end the war. He wants a ceasefire and security guarantees that would protect Ukraine from further Russian aggression. They're not going to want to just allow to sit stop the

fighting gain some advantage build up his forces against

events start all over.

I want to bring ABC news Christian Cordeiro is live for us in Anchorage Alaska Christian first of all we know a short time ago. The president landed and that we've learned this meeting is not a one on one meeting we saw the video there just before they started so who else is with the president how they be taking part.

Yeah, we saw this delegation from the Russian side and from the U.S. side sitting side by side in this room that we had access to for just a few minutes right and from the U.S. is part right, it's president Trump of course sat side by side with Marker Rubio our Secretary of State, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff sitting across from the Russian delegation led by none other than Vladimir Putin.

It's a remarkable sight, especially on the backdrop of this idea of pursuing peace, right, is what was up there, Kena. And at this point, what we're waiting for is perhaps another remarkable sight. There are two podiums, two microphones set on what is essentially a stage and the same mantra right behind it. And we will see if there will be two world leaders who emerge from this meeting and step up to the mic.

Well, certainly it will be. And wouldn't that be a moment if it does happen? We know the president, Christian, spoke with Fox News on board Air Force One ahead of this

summit. Here's a little bit of what he had to say.

I'd like to see a ceasefire. I wouldn't be thrilled if I didn't get it. But everyone says you're not going to get the ceasefire. It'll take place on the second meeting. The second meeting is going to be very. But I'm not going to be happy with that.

So we'll see what happens. I'm going to be, uh, I won't be happy if I walk away without some form of a ceasefire.

Some form of ceasefire there. What else did we hear from the president before the summit got underway?

Yeah, that part of his last statement is interesting. What I find even more interesting is the I won't be happy part, Kena, because it was just 24 or so hours ago where the president said there will be consequences for Vladimir Putin if he does not agree to a ceasefire. So we've seen this kind of lowering of temperature, of expectations, if we will. And it kind of fits into the larger range that we've seen from the White House, right, from it being

called a listening session today for this paving the way for future talks that does have Ukraine at the table, and then all the way up to the threat that there will be severe consequences if this does not produce something substantial

in pursuing peace.

Christiane Cordero, our thanks to you. And for more on where things stand currently in Russia and Ukraine and in this conflict, I want to bring in our ABC contributor and retired Colonel Steve Ganyard. Thank you for being here with us. And the map you have laid out here certainly paints a picture. Let's take a closer look here at the region generally.

Can you show us where the territory lines are right now? And talk to us about how quickly these battle lines moved.

Yeah, it might be worth looking at where we were three and a half years ago before the war actually started. So we know that Russia had essentially annexed Crimea down in 2000 by 2014, and there were Russian-controlled separatists that took this part of the Donbas. So where are we today? This is the region that Russia has captured, about 20 percent total of Ukraine.

So over three and a half years, it's really quite remarkable that what used to be one of the most formative militaries in the world has taken on a much smaller, much less capable Ukraine, and this is all they've got. It would be worth looking also at zooming in on where these four provinces, these four oblasts. So think of these as essentially states, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson. So you see that most of Kherson, there's still part of it that hasn't been captured by the Russians.

And Zaporizhia, the same thing. This is Donetsk. This is where Putin hopes to make his gains in negotiations with Ukrainians, with Zelensky. Why? Because this is an area of great agricultural bounty. It's the place where most of the industrial production goes on in Ukraine. Underneath the soil, you

have coal, you have critical minerals like titanium and lithium. But this is what Putin is going to try to negotiate away. The Ukrainians really can't give it up, though. It would allow the Russians to move 50 miles closer to Kiev. It would allow them to be able to reconstitute in a way that would allow the Russians to move 50 miles closer to Kiev. Would it allow them to be able to reconstitute in a way that would allow them to move into different parts of Ukraine if they decide to re-attack at some point in the future.

We know important region as well in terms of rare earth minerals. But Steve, when this comes down to Putin's demands, what do you think that he wants in order to agree to at least some kind of ceasefire? And how minimal of a ceasefire do you think might be deemed a success?

Yeah, he's got maximalist gains right now. So let's take a look at what his actual demands are. Right now, he wants what's left of the Donbas here, and he wants all of Zaporizhia, and he wants all of Zaporozhye, and he wants all of Kherson. So this is what he's going to ask for. It's unrealistic. The Ukrainians can't give it up. But this is the going in negotiation position, and it has been for weeks. We'll see how the

Ukrainians deal with this. Zelensky has said that he is willing to negotiate some territory. Obviously, Putin's going to have to come off his demands. But all this is weeks and months out in the future, because President Trump has been very clear that what he wants today is a ceasefire. And then we can bring in Zelensky.

Then we can bring in all the Europeans. And you can go down the months of negotiation it's going to get to a ceasefire that will hold for some longer period.

No question you're right about that. Colonel Ganyard, thank you for being here with us. And I also want to bring in our ABC News contributor and former US ambassador to NATO, retired Lieutenant General Doug Lute. So thank you for being here with us.

And actually, I would love your response there to what we just heard from Ganyard about what Russia really wants out of this

in terms of this territorial dispute? Well, Steve Ganyer did really an excellent job laying out the geography of this and the fact that after more than three years, Putin has really made only marginal gains on the ground against his objective to control all of Ukraine.

So eventually, there will be a conversation, I believe,

between Russia and Ukraine about the battle lines to control all of Ukraine. So eventually there will be a conversation, I believe,

between Russia and Ukraine about the battle lines in the provinces as Steve just laid out.

But I want to remind that this is bigger than that for Putin. Putin, even if he were to gain those four provinces, complete control of those four provinces, this would not be over for Vladimir Putin. He wants to subjugate, he wants to control all of Ukraine. And he can

either do that militarily, or he'll attempt to do that politically. So this is about territory

in the near term, sure, but that's not really Putin's ultimate goal. Right, the question of sovereignty, I think looms large here. And can Ukraine maintain it? But we also know that the president has essentially told Volodymyr Zelensky that these kind of negotiations

wouldn't really happen without him. That he's trying to set the table for a trilateral meeting. But do you think that President Putin today will try to push that envelope here and will try to discuss some details?

He may probe on the territory on the territory issue only because it gives him an opportunity to to place a wedge to divide the US, our European allies in Zelensky. So Putin may probe that. I don't think he'll get very far. I think the president and his team have been pretty clear that territory is not a topic for today's conversation. But Putin, he's a wily character. He may well try to probe it.

All right, Lieutenant General Doug Lute, our thanks to you as always. And joining us now for more is former US.S. Ambassador to NATO, Kay Bailey Hutchison, as well as ABC News contributor and associate editor for the Washington Post, Mary Jordan. Wonderful to be with you both.

Ambassador Hutchison, as we start here with you, we know ahead of the summit, Zelensky had said that he does hope for a strong position from the U.S., right? Russia needs to respect the strength of America. What do you think of Zelensky's messaging there?

Well, I think certainly,

the message that I'm seeing is absolutely that the cause of this movement

is a territory of threat.

We're facing a potential crime of an audio problem there with Ambassador Hutchison, so we'll work on that so that we can go back to hear the important things that she is trying to touch on. Mary, in the meantime, though, we know that Russia is making extensive military gains in Ukraine.

It almost seems like once a meeting is agreed to, we start to see that become more and more aggressive. Talk about the motivation there that you see in their military action, but then how does that lean into the motivation to have a ceasefire? Well, it says a lot that Putin took a plane and went to the United States, meanwhile was

dropping bombs on Ukraine. I mean, he is saying that he's not going to stop. He is playing the strongman image. There's a lot of imagery going on here, a lot of big egos. Putin is a masterful tactician. But on the other hand, let's remember that the United States has the biggest military in the world. It's the backing and the tens of billions of dollars worth of arms that have really

helped Ukraine, and Putin knows that. The United States and other Western countries have frozen $300 billion in assets of Russia. That's a lot of power that Trump has right there. And he has threatened to do something really that Putin doesn't want, which is to put a new stranglehold economically on anybody like China and India who buys Russian oil. Everybody's posturing now.

There's a lot of big eagles at stake. There's only images. But the United States has a lot of power right now. And so, it's interesting that Trump is downplaying this because it could be the long haul. It could take a long time, as Steve was saying, because it's intricacies of how much territory,

if there's territory. And Putin has a long record of agreeing to something and then not doing it. And so believing in what he says is a whole other dimension that adds to the complexity and why this is so important. And if it happens, if there is peace, what a big deal it is.

Well, and on that note of the challenges in believing and holding President Putin accountable to his word, we have seen many a ceasefire fall apart. And these ceasefires have been of all different kinds, including just a pause on long-range missiles. Our reporters are saying that that's something that the Kremlin might bring to the table today as part of a ceasefire.

Is just that enough?

Well, I think judging from the economic experts that Putin has brought with him, they're going to be talking probably about sanctions, about arms control. We have an arms control treaty that's between Russia and the United States that's coming up in February. And, of course, another tactic is to take the eyes off the prize here about what's going on in Ukraine for Putin to say,

actually, that's just over here. Why don't you and I deal with the big stuff like nuclear war and this treaty? And a lot of people are actually worried about that. That will be a tactic that will be used. But I think Trump has made it clear that he doesn't like to be made a fool of, and if this is all for nothing, he's going to be mad.

He's kind of said that, I won't be happy unless I get something. And so hopefully we will know something, and it may be baby steps at first, but I think it's a worthy cause, and that's why the whole world is watching what's going on right now. No question about that. Mary Jordan, our thanks to you, as well as our thanks to Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchinson. We have more special coverage here of the historic summit between President Trump and

Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is a picture here of this meeting getting started, this historic moment in time as they

work together to hopefully pursue peace.

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on ABC. And welcome back. Today's meeting in Alaska is Vladimir Putin's 49th meeting with the U.S. president. It's also his seventh meeting with President Trump, who has changed his tone toward the Russian leader in his second term. ABC chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz has more on their relationship.

President Trump's hot and cold relationship with President Putin is taking center stage at the summit in Anchorage, Alaska. It's the first time the two world leaders will get a chance to hash out contrasting priorities for Russia's war with Ukraine. Already Russian state media is dubbing it a win for Russia since Ukrainian President Zelensky is not invited at

Putin's insistence. And the summit is taking place on soil that Russia once owned. It is Putin's first visit to the United States in 10 years. Trump met with Putin six times in his first term and had banked on his friendly relationship with the Russian president to promise a peace deal even before he became president.

We have a very good relationship

and I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with President Putin.

A deal, he said, would be made quickly.

They're dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I'll have that done. I'll have that done in 24 hours.

But more than six months into his second term, that promise has not become reality. And the relationship has at times soured. In May, Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social, calling Putin absolutely crazy for his attacks on Ukraine, which he said needlessly kill a lot of people. After a heavy drone assault on Ukraine last month, Trump unleashed a string of criticism.

I'm very unhappy with them. There's no reason for this. We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin for you want to know the truth.

He's very nice all the time, for you want to know the truth.

He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.

Trump's irritation turning into threats of hefty tariffs and new sanctions if Putin didn't agree to a ceasefire before a set deadline. That deadline passed, and going into the summit, Trump is renewing his threats. Will Russia face any consequences if Vladimir Putin does not agree to stop the war after

your meeting on Friday?

Yes, they will.

What will the consequences be?

There will be consequences.

Sanctions, tariffs?

There will be, I don't have to say, there will be very severe consequences, yes.

But at the same time, Trump seems to be adjusting expectations, suggesting that there might need to be a second meeting before a ceasefire materializes.

If the first one goes OK, we'll have a quick second one. I would like to do it almost immediately. And we'll have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelensky and myself, if they'd like to have me there.

And in the final lead-up to the meeting, Putin is introducing a notable change to the agenda, telling reporters that he wants to discuss a nuclear arms deal. With all the back and forth, experts are wondering if Putin is playing Trump.

We haven't managed to achieve a ceasefire. We haven't managed to achieve any peace. One has the impression that probably President Putin may have got the better of President Trump.

For some, memories of Trump's 2018 Helsinki meeting with Putin are still fresh. Even as Trump's own intelligence experts were telling him that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, Putin convinced him that Russian interference didn't happen. We'll soon find out if Trump has now gained the upper hand in the relationship.

President Trump is a fast learner and I think he has in this presidency gained a degree of self-confidence.

High stakes for Trump going into the meeting and a test of whether Putin is ready to end the war or if he's trying to string Trump along.

And our thanks to Martha for that reporting. And we have more special coverage ahead here of the historic summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin pushing for a path toward peace in Ukraine.

Stay with us.

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We continue our special coverage of the high stakes summit between president Trump and Vladimir Putin president Donald Trump rolling out the actual red carpet for his Russian counterpart. Both leaders now sitting down for their expanded bilateral meeting alongside some of their other top advisers.

ABC News' Christiane Cardero is joining me now live in Anchorage, Alaska with the latest. So first of all, walk us through what we think we can expect next here. And clearly, what's at stake for Ukraine and President Trump in this meeting? When it comes to President Trump, Kena, right, we've seen this range of language over the past couple of days or so. Everything from that this will be a listening session to that this will, and this is kind of where we stand right now, be something that lays the foundation for a second meeting that would include the Ukrainian delegation. And we've also heard

from both U.S. officials, the president himself and European leadership, that there would be consequences for Vladimir Putin if he does not agree to a ceasefire today. Some of those expectations have been lowered. The president, President Trump anyways, has put even expectations of this perhaps falling through or the talks failing at 25 percent within the past day. So there is much to be seen.

And really what this comes down to, right, the brass tacks of it all, is that there is a stage set right now here in Anchorage with two podiums, two microphones. These leaders, they are behind closed doors. And what we're waiting for is to see if there's one leader in President Trump walking out, stepping up to the mic, or if there are two. And of course, if Vladimir Putin joins him at that press conference, Kena, then that

will be remarkable in many ways, and the world will be listening.

We certainly will. Listening and watching Christiane Cordero, our thanks to you. I'm Kena Whitworth here in Los Angeles, and thank you for streaming with us. We have more special coverage ahead of the historic summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. You're watching ABC News Live.

This is where they hope it ends up, as Christiane mentioned, with a unified message from these two leaders, and we'll be watching that closely.

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you that you're streaming. I can't wait Los Angeles and we begin now with our special coverage of that high stakes summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. We saw a warm handshake between Trump and Putin at the joint base Elmendorf Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska earlier today. All eyes are now on the diplomatic dance that's playing out as the U.S. seeks a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. Earlier today, the White House confirming the meeting will now be a three-on-three.

Trump, you see here, joined by Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and a translator. ABC News' Christiane Cordero has more for us from Anchorage, Alaska.

It's a sight never before seen in history. President Trump rolling out the red carpet today in Anchorage, Alaska, greeting Vladimir Putin as the two walks side by side F 22 fighter jets on the runway flying above a reminder if Putin needed one of American military might. The U. S. Yesterday flew in B two bombers to joint base Elm American military might. The US yesterday flew in B-2 bombers to joint base Elmendorf-Richardson. The two world leaders are trying to find a path

to peace in Ukraine. Trump is sharing cautious optimism that today's meeting will be a crucial step.

I wanna see a ceasefire rapidly. I don't know if it's gonna be today, but I'm not gonna be happy if it's not today.

Trump previously g chance of ending in failu believe Putin is ready to

really wants his meeting. been ostracized. You know Um, Putin wants to show h want showing russians tha

a pariah that he can meet

In recent weeks, Russia h attacks.

July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since May 2022. And overnight, Ukraine's Air Force says Russia launched new missile and drone strikes hitting 13 locations. Ukrainian President Zelensky, blocked by Putin from attending the summit, said,

we are counting on America. He's calling today's strikes a sign Putin is not prepared to end the war. He wants a ceasefire and security guarantees

that would protect Ukraine from further Russian aggression.

They're not gonna wanna just allow Putin to sit, stop the fighting, gain some advantage,

build up his forces again, and then start.

Kana, Trump has categorized today's meeting as one of two, saying if it goes well, he may even stay here in Alaska and invite Zelensky to the table. Kena?

Wouldn't that be something? Christian Cordero, our thanks to you. For more now, I wanna go to ABC News' Patrick Rievel, who's tracking the latest now from our London bureau. So first of all, Patrick, you saw what could be considered a rather warm welcome there on the tarmac between President Trump and Putin. What are you hearing from the other side of the world here about how that's being received?

Hi, Kena.

Yeah, I mean, in particular, we've been hearing from Ukrainians who have been watching, as you described it, that rather warm welcome by President Trump of Vladimir Putin there in Alaska. And I think, to put it bluntly, most Ukrainians are sickened, as they have watched those images, of President Putin walking down the red carpet and being applauded by President Trump, and then welcomed warmly, having his hand shaken.

I was actually messaging with a former Ukrainian defense minister who said it was very difficult to watch. And he's noted that Putin is an indicted war criminal. He's responsible for so many atrocities and war crimes that have been recorded in Ukraine since this full-scale invasion. He also said that this is not the right approach.

He said he believes that friendliness with Putin here will be counterproductive. Now, of course, we'll see what happens once they are in the room, but I think it has to be said that for the Kremlin and for Russian state media so far, they could hardly have dreamed of anything better than this image of Vladimir Putin walking down a red carpet and being embraced by the U.S. Once again, Kanan.

Patrick Reval, our thanks to you for that reporting. I also want to bring in our ABC News contributor and former commander of U.S. forces in Korea, retired Army General Robert Abrams, along with ABC News national security and defense analyst Mick Mulroy. Good to be here with you both. And General Abrams, we know the president has said that he essentially is prepared to walk away if Putin doesn't agree to his terms. But we've also talked a little bit about here, those terms could differ greatly between country to country and what a successful step towards a ceasefire might really look like.

I think, Kena, that the you know, the President was pretty clear on one thing, and that is his immediate objective is to get a ceasefire. So I think, you know, what what would cause him to walk away is if Vladimir Putin says, Yeah, we're not doing a ceasefire unless the following five concessions are made.

And that may in fact cause President Trump to walk away. And you've highlighted that, you know, he has walked away previously. I was the commander in Korea in February of 2019 when he met with Kim Jong-un in Hanoi and he walked away. And it is at his press conference when he was leaving, he said, hey, a no deal is better than a bad deal.

And so he did walk away. So he's got precedence for walking away if he believes that it's not accomplishing, the meeting is not accomplishing what he intends to get done.

Mc, I want your assessment here of something we heard from another analyst that just based on the people that President Putin brought with him and the people that are joining him in this meeting, that there should perhaps be an expectation that he does bring up some other things here,

like nuclear warfare sanctions, arms control, things like that, that are ancillary to the ceasefire.

Okay, now they are ancillary. They're all very important, but it might be President Putin's attempt to give President Trump some kind of win if he doesn't intend to have a ceasefire. But it's very difficult to see how this summit will be considered a success without a ceasefire or a promise that a ceasefire will begin shortly that will be followed by all the negotiations that need to go into having an actual resolution to this conflict. Very complicated indeed. In fact, President Zelensky alone can't even do the land and territorial concessions.

That has to be done through referendums by the Ukrainian people. But it is important, I think, as you just pointed, that there's going to be other people in this meeting, because those are the individuals, Secretary of State, for example, and Special Envoy Whitkoff, they're going to need to carry out whatever the two presidents agree to. So it's important that that happens quickly, but it's also really important to point out that there's no ceasefire out of this summit, that it will likely not be considered successful.

Certainly, and again, we know that that ceasefire could look very different. Also, General Abrams, I want your take here on defensive officials confirming to us that as Trump and Putin met, it was a B-2 bomber, as well as four F-35 fighter jets that flew overhead. You saw that moment, right, where they both sort of looked right up what's your take on that show

force.

Yeah, I think you know there's a you know there's some clear. Not so subtle messaging right displaying you know U.S. military power is just a gentle reminder or maybe not so gentle reminder to president Mooton putin as to what he's up against and I'd highlight you know the stage is flanked by two F-22s. Clearly, there's messaging associated with this whole visit

as they laid out the play of the day on how this was going to work out. There was some clear messaging there in terms of our capability and it was not lost on President Putin who was obvious in when he looked up and observed the flyover. And the word capability certainly is true. And the other word

that comes to mind when I hear that is accountability. Mick because I think that the U.S. may end up being you know the one that holds them accountable if some sort of ceasefire agreement is met. What are the different ways you think they could come to a ceasefire? Do you think it could be as simple as stopping long-range missiles, or is it more extensive

than that?

Well, that's something that President Putin's already referenced, but likely he would not offer that unless he felt it would give him an advantage. So really, a full ceasefire agreement, as the U.S. presented back in March, is what's needed to get into really deep discussions on how this war could end. And of course, President Zelensky, as President Trump already mentioned, could fly there immediately and they can start having these discussions.

But if this is just a way for the Russians to show that they're not a pariah anymore, and they essentially agree to nothing. They might have really miscalculated this. This is something I don't think President Trump will take lightly, that they essentially staged this and then didn't have any intent to move the discussions for us on a negotiated end to this conflict.

That could turn against the Russians and President Putin pretty strongly, pretty quickly. So, we'll have to see if they walk out together in this press conference and start talking

about a ceasefire and a way ahead that President Putin has agreed to.

Certainly, that would be contentious if President Putin walked out of isolation onto a red carpet on American soil for a photo op and left without being able to give up anything on his end. General Abrams and Mick Mulrary, thanks to both of you. Joining me now is political analysis for ABC News contributor and former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee John Katko and Democratic strategist and principal at Barrow Strategies Julie Roginsky. It's wonderful to be here with you. So Julie, I know that you've been assessing this. I keep going back to the term you use with me quite often.

If you break it, you buy it. What are the political risks here for the president? Well, look, I don't know about the political risks for the president, but I will tell you what the risks are for the United States of America, which is that today, Sergey Lavrov,

foreign minister of the Russian Federation, showed up to a summit where he was invited by the President of the United States, who is representing all of us, wearing a USSR shirt. And the message there to send to all of us very clearly is that Ukraine, of course, is one of the 15 republics, all of Ukraine, that comprise the Soviet Union.

Aboard their flight to Alaska today, they served chicken Kiev. Chicken Kiev is not a Russian dish. It is an Americanized dish and a French dish that has been perceived to be Russian. But the reality was that what they were trying to portray is that they are cooking Kiev. And so all of this is a mockery of any attempt at peace. All of this is the ultimate troll by the leadership in the Kremlin and specifically by Vladimir Putin.

Let's not forget that Vladimir Putin is a wanted criminal, wanted in The Hague for kidnapping thousands upon thousands of Ukrainian children, re-educating them to fight against their own country. He has castrated Ukrainian prisoners of war to ensure that they will not procreate again to have more Ukrainian children. This is a butcher. And the very fact that the president of the United States in all of our names has welcomed him in with a red carpet to American soil, and not just

to American soil, but to a joint military base that has for years, if not decades, monitored Soviet and then Russian activity is a slap in the face to all of us. To say that I am angry does not begin to describe it. This is done in our name and as a voter and an American citizen I could not be more disgusted with the show that I saw today at the hands of the President of the United States. And well we also heard from Patrick Rievel that Ukrainians

share that sentiment as well, especially with the warm greeting described as a bit chummy between the two. But also, John, I do want to share with you a new poll from Pew Research showing 59 percent of Americans are saying that they're not confident that the president can make a wise decision about the Russia-Ukraine war. John, this poll sort of points out that Republicans in particular are actually less

confident in Trump's decision making since last year. As you analyzed that, what do you think changed?

Well, I think that they're looking at Trump and seeing that he likes to do deals no matter what. You look at the big, beautiful bill that was passed the House,

it's not conservative at all, yet they passed it. And it's in fact it's going to destroy our deficit even more. So a lot of Republicans angry about that. And it's starting to sense that the president wants to win no matter what, first and foremost. That's a dangerous way to go into a very manipulative person like Putin. And I want to expound on what Julie said because I think she was spot on. Let's not forget, Putin invaded Ukraine.

Putin has bombed hospitals. Putin has bombed schools. He's killed tons of civilians. He's targeted civilians. They've also rattled a nuclear saber at the U.S. repeatedly in the last few years. And he's also spearheaded nuclear, I mean, major cyber attacks against the United States, and they've been

in for elections. And I can remember last time there was a conflict where the person who was a total aggressor in that conflict was given this status where he can come in and look like he's an equal with someone who's trying to be the peacemaker, us being the United States, whereas the victim in the whole thing who's getting killed is Ukraine peacemaker, that's being in the United States, whereas the victim in the whole thing, who's getting killed is Ukraine,

and they're not even allowed here because the aggressor says, I don't want him here. There's something very wrong with all this. With all that being said, if somehow peace happens here, a ceasefire emanates from this,

I guess it'll be worth it. But it's really disgraceful that this war criminal, this terrible person who Putin is, who has no regard for the United States, and who does want to renew the republic of the Soviet Union. It's kind of strange to me to see this whole optics, but I'm praying that something will happen and that something good will come of

it.

And certainly the world is watching and hoping for the same thing there. John Kako, Julia Roginsky, always good to be with you. We have more special coverage ahead now of the historic summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin pushing for a path toward peace in Ukraine. Again, you see there that greeting, these images going around the world. And this is what everyone is waiting for the hopes that the two of

them will go to those podiums and they will address the media with some sort of

unified message taking a step toward peace. What does it take to be the most watched newscast in America?

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And welcome back. Today's meeting in Alaska is Vladimir Putin's 49th meeting with the US president. It's also his seventh meeting with President Trump, who has changed his tone toward the Russian leader in his second term.

ABC chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz

has more on their relationship.

President Trump's hot and cold relationship with President Putin is taking center stage at the summit in Anchorage, Alaska. It's the first time the two world leaders will get a chance to hash out contrasting priorities for Russia's war with Ukraine. Already Russian state media is dubbing it a win for Russia since Ukrainian President Zelensky is not invited at Putin's insistence. And the summit is taking

place on soil that Russia once owned. It is Putin's first visit to the United States in 10 years. Trump met with Putin six times in his first term and had banked on his friendly relationship with the Russian president to promise a peace deal even before he became president. We have a very good relationship,

and I also have a very good relationship as you know with President Putin.

A deal he said would be made quickly.

They're dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I'll have that done, I'll have that done in 24 hours.

But more than six months into his second term, that promise has not become reality, and the relationship has at times soured. In May, Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social, calling Putin absolutely crazy for his attacks on Ukraine, which he said needlessly kill a lot of people.

After a heavy drone assault on Ukraine last month, Trump unleashed a string of criticism.

I'm very unhappy with them. There's no reason for this. We get a lot of b****** thrown at us by Putin for you want to know the truth. He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.

Trump's irritation turning into threats of hefty tariffs and new sanctions if Putin didn't agree to a ceasefire before a set deadline. That deadline passed and going into the summit, Trump is renewing his threats.

Will Russia face any consequences if Vladimir Putin does not agree to stop the war after your meeting on Friday?

Yes, they will.

What will the consequences be?

There will be consequences.

Sanctions, tariffs?

There will be, I don't have to say, there will be very severe consequences, yes.

But at the same time, Trump seems to be adjusting expectations, suggesting that there might need to be a second meeting before a ceasefire materializes.

If the first one goes okay, we'll have a quick second one. I would like to do it almost immediately and we'll have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelensky and myself if they'd like to

have me there. And in the final lead up to the meeting, Putin is introducing a notable change to the agenda, telling reporters that he wants to discuss a nuclear arms deal. With all the back and forth, experts are wondering if Putin is playing Trump.

We haven't managed to achieve a ceasefire. We haven't managed to achieve any peace. One has the impression that probably President Putin may have got the better of President

Trump.

For some, memories of Trump's 2018 Helsinki meeting with Putin are still fresh. Even as Trump's own intelligence experts were telling him that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, Putin convinced him that Russian interference didn't happen.

We'll soon find out if Trump has now gained the upper hand in the relationship. President Trump is a fast learner, and I think he has, in this presidency, gained a degree

of self-confidence.

High stakes for Trump going into the meeting and a test of whether Putin is ready to end the war or if he's trying to string Trump along.

Our thanks to Martha for that reporting. We have more special coverage ahead here of the historic summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin pushing for a path toward peace in Ukraine.

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We continue our special coverage of the high-stakes summit between President Trump and Vladimir Putin. President Donald Trump rolling out the actual red carpet for his Russian counterpart. Both leaders now sitting down for their expanded bilateral meeting alongside some of their other top advisors. ABC News' Christian Cardero is joining me now live in Anchorage, Alaska, with the latest. So first of all, walk us through what we think we can expect next here.

And clearly, what's at stake for Ukraine and President Trump in this meeting? When it comes to President Trump, Kena, right, we've seen this range of language over the past couple of days or so, everything from that this will be a listening session to that this will, and this is kind of where we stand right now, be something that lays the foundation for a second meeting that would include the Ukrainian delegation. And we have also heard from both U.S. officials, the president himself and European leadership,

that there would be consequences for Vladimir Putin if he does not agree to a cease-fire today. Some of those expectations have been lowered. The president, President Trump anyways, has put even expectations of this perhaps falling through or the talks failing at 25 percent within the past day. So there is much to be seen. And really what this comes down to, right, the brass tacks of it all, is that there is

a stage set right now here in Anchorage with two podiums, two microphones. These leaders, they are behind closed doors. And what we're waiting for is to see if there's one leader in President Trump walking out, stepping up to the mic, or if there are two. And of course, if Vladimir Putin joins him at that press conference, Kena, then that

will be remarkable in many ways, and the world will be listening.

We certainly will listening and watching Christiane Cordero our thanks to you. I'm Ken with with your Los Angeles and thank you for streaming with us we have more special coverage ahead of the historic summit between president Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin you're watching ABC News live. This is where they hope it ends up as Christiane

mentioned with a unified message from these 2 leaders

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♪♪

I'm Kanda Weirworth here in Los Angeles, and this is special coverage of that high-stakes summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as the United States seeks a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. It's been over two hours now since we witnessed this, the moment the president shook hands with Vladimir Putin when they arrived at the military base there in Anchorage. Both leaders

looking to make progress on an agreement that could determine the future of the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky not in attendance at the summit watching closely though from Kiev saying that he's hoping for a strong result adding that his country is quote counting on America and that everything will depend on this. Now we have special team coverage ABC News Christiane Cordero is leading us off in Anchorage.

It's a sight never before seen in history. President Trump rolling out the red carpet today in Anchorage, Alaska, greeting Vladimir Putin as the two walk side by side F-22 fighter jets on the runway. Flying above, a reminder, if Putin neededin one of american military flew in B two bombers to Richardson. The two world

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In recent weeks, Russia has escalated its attacks. July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since May 2022. And overnight, Ukraine's Air Force says Russia launched new missile and drone strikes hitting 13 locations.

Ukrainian President Zelensky, blocked by Putin from attending the summit, said, we are counting on America. He's calling today's strikes a sign Putin is not prepared to end the war. He wants a ceasefire and security guarantees that would protect Ukraine from further Russian

aggression.

I want to bring in ABC News' Cristian Cordero, who's live for us in Anchorage. And so we talked at the end of your piece there about these security guarantees. Some of those things, it seems like like might have to wait, right? We know the president landed in Alaska and that this is not this one-on-one meeting, this meeting that's been going on now for over two hours. So talk to us a little bit about the other people involved in that meeting, Christiane.

Yeah, it's remarkable to see, right? This pursuing peace backdrop here in Anchorage, Alaska on U.S. soil for the first time in a decade. Was Vladimir Putin his here for the first time in a decade. And the U.S. delegation sitting parallel with the Russian delegation at the helm, of course, Vladimir Putin, President Trump. And then on the U.S. side, we also have Secretary of State Marco Rubio. We have the Joint Chiefs of Staff. We have Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff. And so we expect this conversation, or expected, I should say, it to last, generally speaking, I guess, supposedly on pace for what it has been so far.

It is worth noting, yesterday, President Trump did say that he will know very quickly if Vladimir Putin is taking this seriously. The fact that it's gone two hours now, give or take, suggests that it has. But, really, Kana, we know what the telltale sign will be, right? There right now is a stage that is set with two podiums. And we'll see if there will be two world leaders that

emerge from that. We know President Trump most certainly will. Will Vladimir Putin?

We'll see. That's a good point that you bring up there, Christian, that President Trump had said he would know quickly how this was going. And now this meeting, as you point out there, well over two hours. Christian, the president also spoke to Fox News aboard Air Force One ahead of the summit.

Here's a little bit of what he had to say.

I'd like to see a ceasefire. I wouldn't be thrilled if I didn't get it, but everyone says, you're not gonna get the ceasefire. It'll take place on the second meeting. The second meeting is going to be very, but I'm not going to be happy with that. So we'll see what happens.

I'm going to be I won't be happy if I walk away without some form of a ceasefire.

Won't be happy if he walks away without some form of a ceasefire, of course, indicating that a ceasefire could take many different shapes. What else do we hear from the president as the summit was getting underway?

Right. And some form of a ceasefire is interesting, Kena, because what kinds of concessions could the president potentially, potentially agree to in order to achieve that? Because certainly, while President Zelensky does want a ceasefire, hundreds of thousands of people dead really from both sides of the border, and now the Russian occupation has taken 20% of the land so far, this is definitely in Ukraine's best interest to achieve a ceasefire, but at what cost is what Zelensky has been asking really this whole time, and really the point

he's trying to underscore here is that there really is no lasting peace deal about Ukraine without Ukraine at the table. So when we hear President Trump say we look forward to the second meeting that really does raise interest around the globe because if he were to manage meeting on the calendar between President Putin and Zelensky that would be an accomplishment in itself.

Interesting. All right, Christiane Cordero, our thanks to you. As always, I want to bring in our ABC News contributor and former commander of U.S. forces in Korea, retired Army General Robert Abrams, and ABC News National Security and Defense Analyst

Mick Mulroy. Gentlemen, good to be with you, as always. General Abrams, what's your take here? This meeting, again, going on for over two hours. I do, again, think Chris Jones is right to point out that the president had said, and at least indicated, that he would know really quickly how this meeting was going. And the fact that it has gone on for over two hours, you compare that to the quite chummy greeting that we saw. What's your analysis?

Well, I think we should all have some tempered optimism. But in my view, the longer the meeting goes, the higher the potential is for some positive outcome, potentially like some partial ceasefire. I think the longer it goes,

the better it bodes for finding some sort of negotiated position to head towards a ceasefire. And, you know, this is not President Trump's first meeting with Vladimir Putin, and he does know him well. And so I think this is an indicator that they're hashing it out, right? They're getting into the details. They're talking about real specifics.

So I see the longer it goes as a positive sign.

Mick, what's your take on there? Do you think they're talking a real specifics? And if so, do you think that it is still Putin and Trump driving the meeting? Or do you think that some of the other members of the meeting are having a voice heard in this moment?

And I agree with the general, the longer this goes, the more likely that they're actually getting into the weeds of how this ceasefire negotiation could move forward. If it ended abruptly, then I think it would have been clear that this would not have been the success that President Trump was looking at. Right now, to your point of your question, there probably are involving the foreign minister, the secretary of state, and the special envoys for both sides to really understand how this could go forward. Hopefully, that's after

a ceasefire starts, but these are the individuals that need to actually effectuate these negotiations happening, which also should include bringing in President Zelensky and his team to make this a reality. But I do think, and I agree, cautious optimism should be the rule of the day here right now. But the longer this goes, the better. Hopefully, it goes the full six hours that's expected in both President Trump and President Putin emerge to come to the podiums.

Six hours as expected. That's quite a time for some negotiation there. General Abrams, if they were to come to terms on some kind of ceasefire, what do you think the most likely ceasefire is? And do you think that the United States would be the ones responsible for holding Putin accountable?

Well, I don't on the second part of your question, I don't think that President Trump has signaled that the U.S. would be the sole guarantor of enforcing and making sure that Russia is compliant. I think his words were members of Europe, European countries specifically would all be part of that solution. I think, you know, of course, everyone wants a complete and total ceasefire. I think that's unreasonable, certainly unreasonable today in six hours.

I think something much more realistic would be a ceasefire in a couple of domains of warfare, potentially in the air domain, in the land domain, a commitment by both sides to stop attacking each other from the air and on the ground. That would be a substantial big step in the right direction that would create a positive environment for another meeting, a follow-on meeting that would include President Zelensky.

And, Mick, can I ask you a logistical question about if there were to be this trilateral meeting? We know that President Trump has indicated he'd like for that to happen very soon and, frankly, that he'd like for that to happen in Alaska. How logistically possible is that?

It would be a little awkward for all these individuals to be waiting at one of our military bases in Alaska for President Zelensky to get there. So hopefully, if that is the case, that he essentially is on the strip, ready to fly out immediately. But you're right, logistically, that's going to be very difficult

to see how it would work. But if he's willing to wait, then I think this is obviously worth the wait and certainly worth making it happen if we can get to any kind of ceasefire that ends this horrible conflict. And I would also point out, as the general did, it's primarily the European countries, they're calling the coalition of the willing, that would enforce this ceasefire, potentially by even moving forces into Ukraine. That's what's part of the original plan, I think, that Lieutenant

General Kellogg had put on the table. If that happens, that is a very positive sign. It can actually make this ceasefire, if there is one, last even longer. But you're right, it would be very difficult to see these two groups just hanging out on a military base waiting for

President Zelensky to get there. Wouldn't that be interesting? And I want to, gentlemen, I want you to see what we're looking at here. This is the podium that we're hoping that one of the world leaders would step up to. There's another one right next to it. They've sort of zoomed in there. But what's noticeable about what we're seeing in this camera, this is the press briefing room, is a flurry of activity. Okay, so we now are seeing a lot of reporters rushing in.

A few minutes ago, this room was essentially empty. We're getting notes from our press pool that they may need to gather there soon, and you are certainly witnessing that as well. General Abrams, Mick just said maybe this meeting goes six hours.

Maybe it just goes two hours plus. I know I'm asking you to analyze a press briefing room here, but what's your take on what we're seeing right now?

I think there's plenty of possibilities as to what's going on.

They may be sending out someone to make an announcement to say, hey, you guys go away. This is gonna take more time, hey, you guys go away. This is going to take more time, you know, or or something else. I don't think we should jump to a conclusion that the principals are ready to come out and make an announcement. But you're right, there is a flurry of activity.

That's a really good point here that perhaps there's someone that comes out to give some kind of update, some kind of statement that maybe we don't hear from Putin and Trump themselves in this moment. But clearly, we're watching that very closely. You gentlemen stick around because we'll want your analysis if and when we hear anything, General Abrams and McMillroy.

It's always wonderful to be with you both, thank you. I wanna bring in former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy, Spencer Boyer, along with ABC News contributor and associate editor for The Washington Post, Mary Jordan. Again, good to be with you both. And Spencer, to you first.

We know the president, joined by Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in this meeting here that's been going on for well over two hours. And it's the analysis of McMillroy here that perhaps, and General Abrams, frankly, that perhaps if this meeting is going on this long, that they are able to hammer out some details about what this ceasefire might look like and that perhaps the voices of Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Whitkoff are being heard in this meeting.

Well, thanks so much for having me. And I'll begin with giving President Trump credit for trying to end this conflict, even though he claims to not be on Ukraine's side, which I think we all should be given that it is the victim of Russian aggression. So I think that that's a great thing.

And as you note, the longer it goes on, perhaps the more likelihood that we get to some sort of ceasefire. But I would say that going forward, we're going to need to have our European allies and Ukraine as part of these discussions.

I'm glad that the president has noted that they would be included in some type of trilateral discussion going forward. But to have any lasting peace, you're going to have to have them

as part of this discussion.

Lasting peace also may include some security guarantees. And Mary, as you're speaking here again, we're seeing a flurry of activity in the media briefing room. So if something happens there, we will go to it. But Mary, let's talk about the Europeans essentially stuck on the sidelines today. What's the biggest concern for them going into this meeting, especially given the fact that there's not a voice for them

there today?

It's a good reminder about all the power and the people who are being affected who we don't see on the screen. China is another one. And certainly, Europe has a lot to lose. They're the ones who, you know, they're right up against it.

They're close to the casualties and the bombing. And they have seen through recent history that they have a lot of reason not to believe what Putin says. He'll agree to something and then all of a sudden he doesn't, he backs out.

And so between what China is whispering to Donald Trump, and Donald Trump wants an economic agreement with China, China has declared, Chinese President has called Putin his best friend, but we're also hearing that China wants this war over. And there's just so many different things at play here. And one of the other things we're hearing that they're talking about is a moneymaker, that there's a lot of minerals in the Arctic, and that Trump might be floating that, hey, let's work this out, and together, Russia and America will be digging up these incredibly

valuable minerals. So who knows what's going on in there, but we're hearing that Donald Trump is talking about the money to be made, new alliances to be formed, and we certainly know that there are a lot of players that are key here that you don't see on the screen. That's Europe, as you mentioned, China and others. And there's no question about that.

I'm glad you brought up to the Arctic as well. We know that there's a lot of strategy happening there as those sea lanes begin to open up with the melting of the Arctic ice. And we know that's something that both China and Russia have been trying to capitalize on as well. Spencer Boyer and Mary Jordan, are thanks to both of you. We have more special coverage ahead now of the historic summit between President Trump

and Russian President Vladimir Putin. What you're seeing here is the press briefing room. You're seeing those two podiums where the hope is that the two leaders will eventually go to those podiums together with some sort of unified message about pursuing peace together. We don't know exactly what to expect, but again a flurry of activity there and we're keeping an eye on that and as soon as something happens we'll bring it to you're watching ABC News

live.

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Monsters. And welcome back. You're watching ABC News Live. I'm Kana Whitworth in Los Angeles. But as you know, all eyes are on Anchorage, Alaska right now. The world is watching. And this is what is currently happening. This is a live look inside the media press briefing room. You can still see those two podiums up there and the hope is that President Putin and President Trump would address the media together with some sort of unified message as they try to take a step toward pursuing peace. Now this room not that long ago was almost entirely empty and now the seats are

filling up with media prepared to ask these two world leaders questions if and when they get the opportunity to do so. I do want to pass along to you that from the Kremlin pool reporters that are there, they are saying that the quote narrow based negotiations have ended, pointing out to you that this meeting lasted well over two hours and many of our analysts believe that if a meeting goes on that long,

that perhaps they were getting into some particulars and trying to hammer out some kind of ceasefire deal, although we have no details of what that might look like and no indication of what we might hear. However, again, a flurry of activity in the media briefing room.

We are watching that closely. As soon as something happens, we will bring that to you live. In the meantime, as you know, and you're well aware from this meeting, Ukraine is notably absent from these meetings. We're told the president has said he would update Vladimir Zelensky as soon as the meeting was being was over.

But questions are being raised overall about Russia's intentions in general and the commitment to peace. ABC News foreign correspondent Ian Pannel has more for us on that.

Three and a half years since Russia launched its devastating wholesale invasion of Ukraine. Perhaps a glimmer of light as eyes turn to a key summit between President Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin. But notable by his absence Ukraine's President Zelensky. He hasn't been invited. We hope that the central topic of the meeting will be a ceasefire, an immediate ceasefire. The White House managing expectations, calling

the summit a mere listening exercise. But it's war, war, not jaw, jaw for beleaguered, battle weary Ukrainians, braving three and a half years of this. Day after day after day, relentless bombing and shelling. July was the deadliest month in Ukraine for civilians since the early days of the war, and Russia has been making small but important advances, this week piercing Ukraine's front line in the Donetsk region. Ukrainian officials say Russia has

amassed 110,000 soldiers in the area amid fears defensive lines are stretched dangerously thin in the skies and on the fields of Ukraine. There are no signs Russia has any interest in peace. Russia currently occupies one fifth of all Ukrainian territory. Hundreds of thousands are thought to have been killed, millions forced from their homes. The toll has been staggering and we have seen it up close this past three and a half years. We are hearing the sound of fairly regular bombardment. We are close to the front lines.

It is just down that road. The town of Erpin is being brutally shelled by Russian forces. Hundreds, thousands of civilians are desperately trying to get out of the town.

♪♪

I mean, it's hard to imagine that this was where someone was living. You can see the fire that's been here, the bomb damage. The only thing remaining that tells you this was someone's home is a radiator in the corner there. It's utterly shocking what they've done.

We're travelling in a convoy with war crimes investigators. This is a recently liberated area and already stories are starting to emerge of atrocities

conducted by the Russians and that's what we're going to see. I think from the camera, how they moved it. I would like to say that it is this place that the locals have spoken to.

President Zelensky has stood strong and defiant against pressure not just from Russia, but this year also the United States. You're under pressure from Moscow to step aside and Washington to hold elections. Would you be willing to give up the presidency if it meant peace for Ukraine? The Ukrainian leader telling me in February he'd resign if it meant peace and membership of NATO, saying I'll do it immediately without a long conversation about it.

Days later, he was publicly berated and humiliated in the Oval Office.

The problem is I've empowered you to be a tough guy. And I don't think you'd be a tough guy without the United States. And your people are very brave. But you're either going to make a deal or we're out.

In late April, the Trump administration pushed Zelensky to sign a deal, giving the US permission to mine rare earth minerals and access to other resources, but without any of the American security guarantees that might be key to ending the war. And this is why Ukraine needs those guarantees. Every single day for more than three years, Ukraine has been burying its sons and daughters. Alexander lost both of his legs in a Russian attack.

It's a miracle he's alive. His body is broken, but his spirit strong. We can't stop the fighting, he says. It's the Russians who came here, not us.

And we recently met Anton. Last October, a Russian drone exploded next to him. He had severe burns, needed three amputations and is now blind. They turn off the old TV, and there's a kind of arc, and it's painted like that, and it goes out,

and it happened to me in the eyes, and that's it.

She's constantly helping me now. Can you imagine? Anastasia is now the centre of my life.

Everything is tied to her.

Yes, it's a huge responsibility.

Do you feel sadness? Do you feel anger at what Russia has done to you both?

In my opinion, the feeling of hatred towards the Russians

is a permanent state, it's a conflict Anastasia, Anton and so many Ukrainians didn't ask for. But they answered the call, and for now, they fight on, hoping one day soon this long, costly

and bloody war may finally come to an end.

And our thanks to Ian Pannel for that reporting. Our special coverage ahead here continues on ABC News Live of this historic summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is video from the Kremlin account here of President Putin leaving this meeting. We're told again from the Kremlin pool that the narrow-based negotiations have ended and the press briefing room has filled up.

More to come here on ABC News Live never stops. Taking you to the center of the story as news breaks live. We hear the small arms fire around us. We're right on the border between Ukraine and Russia. ABC News Live is there for you at the start of your day all morning live. ABC News Live right there as events unfold across the day. ABC News Live, breaking down the day's top stories.

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Disney plus tonight, the Trump Putin summit, the 2 leaders meeting face to face with the fate of Russia's war with Ukraine at stake and Aaron officially becomes the first Atlantic hurricane of the season where it's heading now. World News Tonight with David Muir is the most watched newscast in America. People don't just vanish on their way to work with no

witnesses, no trace.

They found the car keys laying on the ground, red high heel shoes. You can see

drag marks. Welcome to Daybreak. I'm Jodi Housen-Trout. J-I-M-T news anchor Jodi Housen-Trout was just 27 at the time of her disappearance.

She told me she thought someone was following her.

Maybe this is it.

Maybe we're going to find her now.

Holy crap.

This is really real.

Let's find Jodi.

Her last broadcast only on Hulu. We continue our special coverage of the high stakes summit between President Trump and

Vladimir Putin. President Donald Trump rolling out the red carpet for his Russian counterpart. And now the press is awaiting patiently. Will these two men take to these empty podiums and deliver a unified message? We will see. And we may see that momentarily.

We're watching closely. In the meantime, though, I do want to bring in Doug Lute for some analysis on this. And Doug, passing along to you from the Kremlin account, we've seen now President Putin leaving this meeting. We're also being told that the narrow-based negotiations have ended. Again, that is from the Kremlin pool at this meeting. What exactly is a narrow-based part of this negotiation?

Well, I take that to mean the early three-on-three bilateral negotiations focused on the potential of a ceasefire in Ukraine, which was the fundamental purpose of this meeting. This was always advertised to be a series of sessions. So you had this three-on-three session focused on Ukraine, followed by a broader session with more staffers on each side, perhaps

bleeding over into economic or trade issues and so forth, and then potentially a press conference. So it seems to me that the first part

of this three-part package may be nearing completion.

And does it surprise you, though, that they may address the press before a full agreement has been reached? We'll answer that question here in a moment because I want to send it now to David Muir in New York with a special report.

This is an ABC News special report Trump Putin summit. Now reporting David Muir.

Good evening we're coming back on the air at this hour because President Trump and Vladimir Putin are about to hold a joint news conference bringing their historic high-stakes summit inorage, Alaska to an end. The two leaders meeting for more than two and a half hours at joint base Elmendorf Richardson in Anchorage. President Trump pushing for a ceasefire in Ukraine. The president sounding optimistic just ahead of today's meeting. We saw them both arrive in Anchorage, Alaska late today.

Air Force One arriving first, President Trump then welcoming Vladimir Putin on the red carpet. I want to bring in Mary Bruce, who's in the room. Mary, we learned just moments ago that we are expecting to hear from both leaders that they will hold a joint news conference, and they will face questions about the future of Ukraine and whether or not they reach terms on a cease-fire.

Can you tell them that? David, to set the scene here for you a little bit, President Trump and Vladimir Putin have been meeting for several hours. I was just told that meeting is still ongoing, but reporters here were just scrambled into this room, told to expect them both to come out and face questions here any moment, the expectation being that we will shortly see President Trump side by side with Vladimir Putin, fielding questions from U.S. and Russian reporters now

remember what the president had said going into this meeting that if this did not go well that he was simply going to walk that he was going to leave so that certainly would suggest that there are hopes for signs of progress here tonight,

David. We know Mary leading up to today even on Air Force one on the trip to Anchorage Alaska. The president was asked how he would define this as successful. He said he wanted a ceasefire, and that if he didn't get one today, that he would not be happy.

Those were his words, David, that he would not be happy. He made very clear, especially even clearer than he had previously in the hours right before this meeting, that how he was going to define success was getting Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire or at least making significant steps in that direction. Now he also said that when it comes to negotiating the details of any deal to come after that ceasefire

that that would be up to the two countries up to Ukraine and Vladimir Zelensky and up to Russia and Vladimir Putin but the president making it very clear he wanted, he wants to walk away from this summit here today with a ceasefire and then set the stage for another meeting, hoping that what happens today,

the conversation they've been having for several hours here, that that lays the groundwork to finally get Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Zelensky, and President Trump all in a room together to finally come up with a way to end this war, David.

Those are the very questions, Mary, that will be asked of both of these leaders when they appear in this room in Anchorage, Alaska, just moments from now. Again, as Mary just reported, reporters from all over the world

were just scrambled back into that room a little earlier than had been anticipated to take what they are expecting to hear from both of these leaders and report it back to their home countries. Again, both leaders expected to take questions as well from reporters gathered there in the audience.

We've been watching all afternoon here with our live coverage on ABC, the arrival in Anchorage, Air Force One arriving, President Trump on the plane, greeting the senators from Alaska, waiting for Vladimir Putin to arrive.

And there you see the arrival, Vladimir Putin shaking hands with President Trump on the red carpet, a very warm welcome. This is the first time Vladimir Putin was invited to the US for a summit, for a meeting of this magnitude in more than a decade. There had been some who would criticize this saying,

why is he being invited to US soil? There were others though within the White House and supporters who said, nothing has worked so far. So how do you get to a ceasefire? President Trump was convinced he should give this a try. They walked down the red carpet in front of the cameras,

had a photo op at the end of this. You'll see the F-22s as well in some of the coverage here, the images, and then the B-2 bombers, the flyover that happened just as President Trump and Vladimir Putin were standing there. There was a moment when Vladimir Putin looked up to the sky as the B-2 bombers flew over.

Another extraordinary — there it is right there. The other extraordinary moment playing out was the motorcade. Just moments after this scene right here, Vladimir Putin invited into the presidential motorcade the Beast, as it's called, a highly secure limousine for President Trump. Vladimir Putin right there, riding with President Trump.

You can see right through the window the smile on Vladimir Putin's face. Many back in Russia had already been reporting leading up to this summit that this was somewhat of a victory, since the West has been very quiet with Vladimir Putin, has not engaged with him, has not met with him since the invasion of Ukraine three-and-a-half years ago. President Trump repeatedly saying this was the shot to get a cease-fire, this was his attempt to get things moving towards some sort of an end in Ukraine.

Going into this, very honest these last couple of days, the president saying there was a 25 percent chance that this could fail, but he was optimistic. He said he believed Vladimir Putin wanted to make a deal going into this summit and we're about to find out if they came to terms. We do know that there was a working lunch planned with larger delegations from both countries and I'm told that lunch was skipped. So there was the meeting, the summit meeting itself, President Trump, Steve Whitkoff,

his special envoy who traveled to Russia not long ago helping to set up this summit, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio also in the room with President Trump, two other dignitaries with Vladimir Putin as well. So it was called a three-on-three meeting, six people in that room. And we're about to watch live with the rest of the world what these two leaders have to say. Martha Raddatz watching the coverage all afternoon, joining us as well here tonight.

And Martha, also watching the people of Ukraine, President Zelensky, who was promised a phone call from President Trump after the summit, I'm sure eager to hear what they have come to terms on.

MARTHA RADDATZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, U.S. NEWS AND WELFARE David and he has been watching closely as you know he was quite upset that they had a meeting without him because it is his country's fate they are discussing but you know President Trump also said one thing in the last few days and he said he would know within the first two minutes if things weren't going well well it's several hours later so hopefully that is a good sign that they kept talking and that they will come out together. We don't know any of that yet but we know he passed that

two-minute mark. You also, David, mentioned those stark images that we saw today really stunning images of Vladimir Putin arriving here in Anchorage on that red carpet smiling from the the beast the presidential limousine, shaking hands with President Trump. And that flyover, which I think was meant to be a bit of a show of force, also added to the pageantry here. So indeed, I think Vladimir Putin was quite pleased with that arrival.

But you did see that warm relationship between the two men. And that may well help in any of these meetings, because they do have a relationship. No one has been talking from the Western world, at least very few people from the Western world have been talking to Vladimir Putin since he invaded Ukraine in 2022, and certainly the first American president to speak to him since that time. Obviously, President Trump spoke to him during his first term, but not since the invasion

that Russia invaded. And, David, I couldn't help thinking truly of those stark images and the stark comparison when we think of that invasion and the city of Bucha, just 30 miles away from the capital city. You were there as well, and images of those mass graves. And today, we are seeing this pump with Russia's president,

the man who went in and was responsible for that.

David. Martha Raddatz with us here all afternoon and again here at 630. Martha, thank you. For those of you joining us now, about 638 here in the east, many of you would normally be tuning in for world news tonight. What you're watching is ABC News live coverage out of Anchorage, Alaska. This is the base where President Trump and Vladimir Putin have been conducting their very high stakes summit.

President Trump acknowledged that. Those are the words that he used, knowing that this summit would be somewhat of a gamble going into this. President Trump himself said he's had meaningful conversations with Vladimir Putin along the way that the words don't always hold up. I want to bring Mary Bruce back into this.

She's inside that room. Mary, give me a sense of the room and how quick this scramble was to get everyone back in, because you all learned that there has been some sort of rap to this meeting and some sort of announcement that they're going to want to make together on that stage.

It's certainly a sign that there is some kind of progress here that has been happening. We haven't gotten yet the official word that this meeting, that this bilateral meeting that has now been going on for over three hours, we haven't been told officially that that has wrapped yet. But clearly, as you mentioned, this meeting and their time together was supposed to go on for much longer. They were expected to have that meal together, a bigger sit-down between the two delegations.

That appears to have been scrapped. All of us reporters who were sitting here getting our questions ready, waiting, sort of hunkering down, expecting several more hours before we would be in this position suddenly scrambled, racing in here. I'm surrounded by hundreds of reporters, hundreds of cameras, the U.S. press, the White House delegation, the Russian press, everyone here now sitting at attention, waiting to learn what has happened, what progress, if any, has been made.

And, as we said, the president indicated he would simply walk away if there was not something to announce. Clearly, there is now something to announce. It is not just this room that is waiting. It is the world, and it is is certainly Ukraine who has the most on the line in this summit, waiting eagerly to learn what has been discussed, what progress has been made. And remember, the president did say that he was going to call President Zelensky as soon as he wrapped up his meeting.

Another question that we will have for the president here, David. Mary, you've covered President Trump for many years. You've covered him as a candidate as well. And we both know that he knows what 630 means back in the United States, that millions of Americans tune in for the evening news. He knows by calling this news conference now that he'll have additional eyes watching whatever comes of this summit.

He's regularly does it a bit differently than past presidents, where he just sort of picks

and chooses and calls on people. David, I think I lost you there for a moment, but certainly I believe you were alluding to President Trump's stagecraft. He certainly understands the timing of broadcast. He certainly knows that if he wants to get a lot of attention and eyeballs, he knows how to do it,

and he certainly is doing just that right now.

Mary Bruce, inside the room as we await a news conference, a joint news conference with President Trump and Vladimir Putin, obviously of Russia, for this historic summit on U.S. soil in Anchorage, Alaska. They have been meeting for more than two hours. President Putin had said going into this meeting that he wanted to talk about more than just Ukraine.

He was aware that President Trump wanted a ceasefire. He talked about the sincerity of that, the energy of that was complimentary to President Trump in the days leading up to this summit, but also said he wanted to talk about the economy, business relationships, and nuclear issues

with President Trump as well. Obviously, we'll have to wait to hear what they tell reporters as to what was discussed. You heard Mary talk about the people of Ukraine also waiting to hear if there's been any movement in trying to end this war.

I want to bring in Ian Pannel, our chief foreign correspondent. He's in Kyiv, he's covered the war for years now for us. And Ian, I gather many people are up in the middle of the night there waiting to hear if there's been any movement here. Yeah that's right David I think everyone is fixed onto their TV

screens listening to their radios and waiting to see what the news is not least of course the president of the country Zelensky who is promised that phone call from President Trump when this meeting finishes. I think many people were concerned that if it ended quickly, perhaps it was bad news, but if it ends quickly and there's a joint press conference, then perhaps hopes are raised that there could be a ceasefire. But people are going to be very cautious here. They've been burnt before. Ukraine has signed peace deals in the past involving America,

involving Russia that have been broken, promises that have not been kept. So people will want to see the details of this. Stage one, of course, would be a potential ceasefire. But then comes the tricky part of negotiations. Potentially a trilateral meeting involving Zelensky, Putin and Trump. But then they've got to try and resolve some of the differences. Russia occupies 20 percent of Ukrainian land.

One fifth of the territory has Russian troops on it. They're going to have to negotiate what happens to that territory, who controls it. And as well, Russia also maintains its original aims of the war. Set out, we were standing here three and a half years ago talking to you as the war started, Vladimir Putin saying essentially he doesn't recognize Ukraine as a valid state, doesn't want it allied to the West, doesn't want it part of NATO, and doesn't

want it militarily strong. So how are you going to bridge those important differences? Those are the details that will have to be worked out. But if, if, and it is a large if at this moment, they come onto that stage and they announce that there is a ceasefire, there will be enormous relief in this country.

Finally, people will be able to rest, at least for now, and then worry about what comes tomorrow.

Yeah, it's impossible to overstate the challenge that lies ahead, whether there is a ceasefire here or not. Ian, something that you just brought up, which I think is really important for our audience, is just to remind them of where this all stands. Of course, Americans have been deeply following the war in Ukraine since the invasion

more than three and a half years ago. And Ian, as you point out, Russian gains, they are now overseeing, if you will, or in control of, at least for now, about 20% of the eastern part of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin has signaled

that he doesn't want to give any of that up. In fact, there are a couple of areas where he wants more territory. And of course, President Zelensky has said that that territory is rightfully belongs to Ukraine and the people of Ukraine, that the Constitution wouldn't allow him to give that up, even though Russia made gains after the invasion. So, again, if, and it's a big if, they announce a ceasefire here

today, it would seem there's going to be quite a challenge when they get President Zelensky, President Putin, President Trump to a table, if that's what potentially is coming next year.

Yeah, it's a huge gulf. It's not just that Vladimir Putin wants that territory. He also changed his constitution. He now enshrines Ukrainian provinces, think of them like American states, as part of Russia. So that would mean rechanging the Russian constitution to relinquish that territory, which seems unthinkable. I mean, Russian troops are on the front foot, on the front lines in the east of the country

at the moment. They're not taking huge amounts of ground. The front lines have moved marginally over time, and Russian troops are slowly advancing at a cost of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of lives to Russia and to Ukraine. But nevertheless, Ukraine is stretched very, very thin. The flow of weapons, the flow of defensive weapons and offensive weapons has slowed down.

Those long-range weapons that President Biden agreed to give to Ukraine has effectively stopped. President Trump has not authorized those long-range weapons to give to Ukraine has effectively stopped, that President Trump has not authorised those long-range weapons to continue to flow. So Ukraine's ability to defend itself has been weakened. Ukraine knows it's on the back foot, but again, Zelensky is in the same position.

His constitution enshrines the integrity of Ukrainian land, and that's something that the Europeans have been trying to stress to Donald Trump, that you can't negotiate away the territory. So how do you resolve that? How do you recognize somehow that Russia occupies parts of your land and have a lasting peace? And again I go back to peace treaties that

have been broken before, Ukrainians mistrustful. Ian Pannel in key for us Ian we appreciate your reporting, your insights today, and of course, for years now covering this war. So many of us on this team have been to Ukraine a number of times, Martha Radetz included in that. I've been there, we brought the broadcast there

many times during this war, interviewed President Zelensky in the middle of all of this. And again, as Mary pointed out earlier, President Trump did promise President Zelensky during conversations earlier this week that he would call him after this summit wraps up to give him a readout of what played out. We did show this video.

I want to show it again and again. This is a live picture. The moment those two leaders walk out, we will carry it live. So you're not going to want to tune away. We'll hear from them if there's been progress made here today in Anchorage, Alaska. But moments ago, we got images in of Vladimir Putin.

It appeared to show him leaving the summit after more than two-and-a-half hours or so with President Trump, two delegates with Vladimir Putin, two delegates, Steve Whitcoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with President Trump. I would gather they're preparing to now come out onto that stage in front of the International Press Corps. Rachel Scott is in that room.

And Rachel, it's my understanding when we saw everyone sort of hold up their phones there for a moment, I think people at home watching this live might've wondered, does that mean the president's coming out but Steve Whitcoff, the special envoy who was in Russia helped to set up this summit, who

was there again today, was walking into the room.

That's exactly right, David. It was the special envoy, Steve Whitkoff, who walked into the room. He sat in the first row there. And there are still several seats that are empty. Whitkoff actually just left the room right now, a sign that it's very unclear when exactly this potential press conference is going to be starting. This was a complete and total scramble,

the timeline shifting up, the White House calling on officials and calling on us to quickly assemble and come into this area and await for the arrival of President Trump and possibly President Putin.

We did notice that they were doing mic checks on two of the podiums that are here. Steve Whitkoff played a very critical role, as you mentioned, David, in setting up today's summit and today's meeting. I traveled with the president on Air Force One here to Alaska, and it was notable just how aligned his message was with our European allies following a big call that they all had. The president telling me that today his goal is to get Ukraine and Russia to

a table to negotiate a ceasefire at some point, but it would be up to Ukraine. It would be ultimately their decision to decide if there are any territorial swaps. Of course, we have heard from Ukrainian President Zelensky. He has been adamant that that should not happen unless there are security guarantees, which the president says that he is open to. David.

Well, Rachel, we have our normal viewers who are watching at 630 and those around the country who've tuned in a little earlier than normal because of our live coverage here tonight. And in reading the tea leaves, I don't want to get ahead of ourselves too quickly here, Rachel, but just reading the tea leaves, President Trump said going into this summit that if it didn't go well, he could potentially walk out, return to Washington, but that even if it didn't go well, he would address reporters at least on his own. And the fact that you point out that they tested both mics that the media has been told to expect a press conference

with both leaders would portend perhaps some movement here on trying to get some sort of resolution to get everyone to the table here. Yes, David. And I'll

tell you that even 20 minutes into the flight on Air Force One, we did get a surprise visitor. It was the president of the United States. He suddenly came back. He spoke to reporters, and he was very clear that he would be willing to walk out of this meeting

if he did not get what he needed or did not hear what he needed to from the Russian president. So the sign and the fact that this has now gone on—I was in that earlier spray inside of the room when we saw these two leaders sitting side by side. I shouted several questions at President Putin about a ceasefire and if he would stop killing Ukrainian civilians.

Putin did not respond, although he did appear to whisper something back to me. But just the sign that this has lasted this long is a sign that there could be potential progress at the very least. Either way, the president said that he was prepared to come out here and address the cameras. And now we're waiting to see if President

Trump is going to join him, David.

Rachel Scott, part of our team right there in Anchorage, Alaska. Mary Bruce also in the room. And, Mary, I see people holding up their cameras right now. And of course, that, there you go. Some of the dignitaries now entering the room. Sergei Lavrov among them, right there in the front row, part of the Russian delegation. Steve Whitcoff, we know, entered the room, then left the room.

We were getting sort of a play by play. Susie Wiles, the chief of staff for the White House, entering the room now. Secretary Besant, Treasury Secretary Besant, among others, they're part of the US delegation, of course, in Anchorage, Alaska for this historic summit with Vladimir Putin, the Defense Secretary as

well. You heard Martha Raddatz talk earlier about how President Trump had said going into this that he would know, and fairly quickly, if there was going to be progress with Vladimir Putin. Halfway through the week, they did lower expectations a bit, saying that this was going to be, in some ways, a listening exercise.

But the president remaining optimistic all week long, and even on Air Force One, as Rachel Scott just reported, she was on Air Force One traveling with the president, he sounded optimistic as well. He believed, he said late this week, that Vladimir Putin was coming to this summit

because he wanted to make a deal of some sort. President Trump confident that, and there you have Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was also in the room with President Trump and Vladimir Putin, along with Steve Whitkoff. Of course, we'll learn more about what played out

in that room more than two and a half hours, this summit in Anchorage, Alaska. We were told that there would be some sort of a working lunch, a working session of sorts, with larger delegations from both countries that would follow the summit itself

between these two leaders. We were told that was scrapped. And as we've been reporting here, reporters from the International Press Corps were scrambled, if you will, told to get into the press room more quickly

than they thought this would come for this joint press conference. And again, we have been saying here that President Trump had leading into this summit said that at the very least, I will address reporters on the backside,

even if it's not about what I want it to be. I will take questions from reporters in that audience, but they have been testing both microphones. You can see the Russian delegation there in the front row. Every indication, obviously, is that we're gonna hear from both of these leaders

on a day when the timing of this was moved up, the working session that followed the summit was scrapped. It would appear — it would appear, and I don't want to get ahead of ourselves here — that there has been some sort of progress in this effort to try to get to a cease-fire. And again, President Trump has said repeatedly that the cease-fire was very important to him and a cease-fire today. But he also acknowledged that the ceasefire was very important to him and a ceasefire

today. But he also acknowledged that the war... Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States of America... And there you have the announcement. ...and the President of the Russian Federation... And the President of the United States and Vladimir Putin taking the stage.

Let's watch and let's listen.

We'll report on the backside. Thank you. I would like to thank my American colleague once again for the offer to come to Alaska. It is quite logical to meet here, because our countries, although we are separated by the plane and I said, Good afternoon, dear neighbor. It is very nice to see you in good health and alive. And in a neighborly way, it sounds very good, in my opinion.

We are only divided by the Bering Strait. And I think that's some kind words that we can say to each other. We're separated by the Strait of Bering, though there are two islands only between the Russian island and the U.S. island. They're only four kilometers apart. We're close neighbors, and it's a fact. It's also important that Alaska has to do with our common heritage, common history between

Russia and the U.S., and many positive events have to do with that territory. Still, there is tremendous cultural heritage back from the Russian America—for example, Orthodox churches and a lot of—more than 700 geographical names of Russian origin. During the Second World War, it was here, in Alaska, that was the origin of the legendary air bridge for the supply of military

aircraft and other equipment under the Land Lease Program. It was a dangerous and treacherous route over the vast emptiness of ice. However, the pilots of both countries did everything to bring close to the victory. They risked their lives, and they gave it all for that common victory. I was just in the city of Magadan in Russia, and there is a memorial there dedicated to the Russian and the U.S. pilots.

And there are two flags, the U.S. flag and the Russian flag. And I know that here, as well, there is such a memorial. There is a military burial place several kilometers away from here. The Soviet pilots that buried there, who died during that dangerous mission, were thankful to the citizens and the government of the U.S. for carefully taking care of their memory. I think that's very worthy and noble.

We'll always remember other historical examples when our countries defeated common enemies together in the spirit of battle camaraderie and allyship that supported each other and facilitated each other. I am sure that this heritage will help us rebuild and foster mutually beneficial and equal ties at this new stage, even during the hardest conditions. It is known that there have been no summits between Russia and the U.S. for four years,

and that's

a long time. This time was very hard for bilateral relations, and let's be frank, they've fallen to the lowest point since the Cold War. I think that's not benefiting our countries and the world as a whole. It is apparent that sooner or later we have to amend the situation to move on from the confrontation to dialogue.

And in this case, a personal meeting between the heads of state has been long overdue, naturally under the condition of serious and painstaking work. This work has been done in general. Me and President Trump have very good direct contact. We've spoken multiple times.

We spoke frankly on the phone.

And special envoy of the president, Mr. Whitkoff, traveled out to Russia several times. Our advisers and heads of foreign ministries kept in touch all the time. And you know fully well that one of the central issues was the situation around Ukraine. We see the strive of the administration and President Trump personally to help facilitate the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict.

And his strive to get to the crux of the matter, to understand this history, is precious. As I've said, the situation in Ukraine has to do with fundamental threats to our security. Moreover, we've always considered the Ukrainian nation—and I've said it multiple times—a brotherly nation, however strange it may sound in these conditions.

We have the same roots, and everything that's happening is a tragedy for us, a terrible

wound.

Therefore, the country is sincerely interested in putting an end to it. The same time, we are convinced that in order to make the settlement lasting and long-term, we need to eliminate all the primary roots, the primary causes of that conflict. And we've said it multiple times, to consider all legitimate concerns of Russia and to reinstate a just balance of security in Europe and in the world on the whole. And I agree with President Trump, as he has said today, that naturally, the security of

Ukraine should be ensured as well. Naturally, we are prepared to work on that. I would like to hope that the agreement that we've reached together will help us bring closer that goal and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine. We expect that Kiev and European capitals will perceive that constructively and that they won't throw a wrench in the works.

They will not make any attempts to use some backroom dealings to conduct provocations to torpedo the nascent progress. Incidentally, when the new administration came to power, bilateral trade started to

grow.

It's still very symbolic. Still we have a growth of 20 percent. As I've said, we have a lot of dimensions for joint work. It is clear that the U.S. and Russian investment and business cooperation has tremendous potential. Russia and the U.S. can offer each other so much in trade, digital, high-tech, and in

space exploration.

We see that Arctic cooperation is also very possible in our international context, for example, between the far east of Russia and the west coast of the U.S. Overall, it's very important for our countries to turn the page, to go back to cooperation. It is symbolic that not far away from here, the border between Russia and the U.S., there is a so-called international deadline. I think you can step over, literally, from yesterday into tomorrow. And I hope that we'll succeed in that, in political sphere.

I would like to thank President Trump for our joint work, for the well-wishing and trustworthy tone of our conversation, it's important that both sides are result-oriented. And we see that the President of the U.S. has a very clear idea of what he would like to achieve. He sincerely cares about prosperity of his nation.

Still, he understands that Russia has its own national interests. I expect that today's agreements will be the starting point not only for the solution of the Ukrainian issue, but also will help us bring back businesslike and pragmatic relations between Russia and the U.S. And in the end, I would like to add one more thing. 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. And I said it quite directly back then, that it's a big mistake. Today, when President Trump is saying 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.

I think that, overall, me and President Trump have built a very good, businesslike, and trustworthy contact. And I have every reason to believe that moving down this path, we can come, and the sooner the better, to the end of the conflict in Ukraine. Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, thank you very much, Mr. President. That was very profound. And 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, but we've made some headway. 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 I'll, of course, call up President Zelensky and tell him about today's meeting. It's ultimately up to them. I'm going to have to agree with what Marco and Steve and some of the great people from the Trump administration who've come here, Scott and John Ratliff.

Thank you very much. But we have some of our really great leaders. They've been doing a phenomenal job. We also have some tremendous Russian business representatives here. And I think, you know, everybody wants to deal with us. We've become the hottest country anywhere in the world in a very short period of time.

And we look forward to that. We look forward to dealing. We're going to try and get this over with. We really made some great progress today. I've always had a fantastic relationship with President Putin, with Vladimir. We had many, many tough meetings, good meetings.

We were interfered with by the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. It made it a little bit tougher to deal with, but he understood it. I think he's probably seen things like that during the course of his career. He's seen it all. But we had to put up with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. He knew it was a hoax, and I knew it was a hoax, but what was done was very criminal. But it made it

harder for us to deal as a country in terms of the business and all of the things that would like to have dealt with. But we'll have a good chance when this is over. So just to put it very quickly, 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. There are just a very few that are left. Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant.

But we have a very good chance of getting there. We didn't get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there. I would like to thank President Putin and his entire team, whose faces who I know in many cases otherwise, other than that, whose whose faces I get to see all the time in the newspapers. You're very you're almost as famous as the boss, but especially this one right over here. But we had some good meetings over the years, right? Good, productive meetings over the years.

And we hope to have that in the future. But let's do the most productive one right now. We're going to stop really 5,000, 6,000, 7,000, thousands of people a week from being killed. And President Putin wants to see that as much as I do. So again, Mr. President, I'd like to thank you very much, and we'll speak to you very soon and probably see you again very soon. Thank you very much, Vladimir.

And next time in Moscow.

Oh, that's an interesting one. I'll get a little heat on that one, but I could see it possibly happening. Thank you very much, Vladimir. And thank you all. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. As we wait to see if the president will take any questions from the room. There you have it. Vladimir Putin first addressing reporters, then President Trump addressing reporters as well, talking about what he called, this is President Trump, an extremely productive meeting. That's how he characterized the summit. He said, many points we agreed to, there are some points left, including one point that's

pretty significant. Did not go into detail about what that point was. He did say, we're going to save thousands of lives. And he believes that President Putin wants that as well, but didn't clearly say flat out that they have agreed to a cease-fire that begins whenever. That was not declared by either one of these leaders.

He also said that he would be contacting NATO and calling President Zelensky, as we had been reporting in our coverage earlier today. President Trump earlier this week promised that he would call President Zelensky after this summit. So a clear indication from President Trump that that call has not happened yet, though he fully intends to do so. He also intends to call his European allies in the E.U., leaders of, I gather, the U.K., France, other countries that have been involved in the coalition that has supported Ukraine from the very beginning.

I want to bring in Mary Bruce, who is in the press briefing room. And, Mary, if you can hear me, I'm just bringing the audience up to speed here on what we have just witnessed here together live on the air. Again, President Trump calling this extremely productive, saying many points agreed to, some points left. He said one point is pretty significant, but he suggested that perhaps we could get there.

I did not hear, and correct me if I'm wrong, I did not hear any declaration of a ceasefire.

No, you certainly did not. And I have to say, I don't think I've ever been left after hearing from the president of the United States with so many questions. They both came out in these short remarks, suggesting that progress has been made. Vladimir Putin using the word agreement, agreement saying I expect that today's agreement will be a good starting point. The president referencing the fact that they

aren't quite there which hinted at the point that they didn't get it appears the full ceasefire that the president, that President Trump was hoping for but he kept alluding to this progress. What is the progress? That is the big question and one that we still do not have the answer to. This was incredibly vague. And I have to say, with quite literally the entire world watching, with the future of Ukraine hanging in the balance, to not have any clarity here is pretty astounding.

Now, the president, President Trump, said he said he was going obviously to be speaking with Ukrainian president Zelensky he was hoping that coming out of this meeting that they were going to have a ceasefire and that he would be was going to be announcing a trilateral meeting that he was going to be announcing that they were finally going to get Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky in

the same room, it seems we are still a ways away from that

David but.

So Mary perhaps I'll give you a little break here for audience at home we're going to stay on the air through 7.30 Eastern here for another 20 minutes or so we'll let our White House teams do some reporting here in the meantime, Mary and Rachel Scott also traveling with the president to try to see if we can get some clarity from the White House about what this

agreement is because you did did hear Vladimir Putin there at the top of the press conference, as Mary just alluded to, and I heard it as well, Vladimir Putin saying that they had reached an agreement, though he did not offer any details of what this agreement would be. Vladimir Putin talking about the relationship between the U.S. and Russia, the chilliness to that relationship for a very long time. He said it was time to reengage both countries.

He talked about Alaska, too, by the way, and the history of Alaska, which, by the way, was sold to the US back in 1867. Many of you have read that in the coverage leading up to this summit, sold for $7.2 million back in 1867, talked about the history of Alaska, the common heritage, he called it. Vladimir Putin then went on to talk about the economy and about trade with the U.S., talked about the trustworthy nature of the conversation with President Trump and the

others who were in the room from the Trump administration. And he used the word agreement. We all took note of that. The control room did as well. And we were hoping that when President Trump began speaking that perhaps he would shed some light

on what this agreement is. So when President Trump began speaking, you all heard it with us at home. He said it was an extremely productive meeting. many points agreed to, some points left. And I have the actual quote here, because I think this is the most clarity we had from President Trump.

We had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to. There are just a few that are left. Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there. I guess my notes were pretty close to what the actual quote was. Martha Raddatz, our chief global affairs anchor, is on the ground in Anchorage.

And, Martha, we knew this would be high stakes. President Trump used those words going into this summit. And as of now, there is not much clarity as to what this agreement that Vladimir Putin noted is, and certainly they did not use the word ceasefire.

They did not use that word at all, and that's what President Trump said. Unless he had a ceasefire at the end of these meetings, there would be severe consequences. It certainly doesn't sound like anything like that is going to happen, but as Mary said, it was completely vague.

I think all of us were sitting there waiting for Donald Trump to announce just what an agreement was, if there was an agreement and we got nothing. In my notes, David, I have that Donald Trump said no deal until there is a deal. So that's probably the firmest thing he said, that there was no deal, even though he said there was progress in these several different points. And, you know, obviously, the Russians have several sticking points. Ukraine has a lot of sticking points. And we don't know exactly what Donald

Trump believes was agreed upon in this meeting. But it does not sound and it certainly did not announce any kind of ceasefire. And that is what Donald Trump said he wanted. And it doesn't appear that's what he got. Is there progress in that relationship? Vladimir Putin seemed very happy about the meeting and getting to meet with Donald Trump

again. You heard the president also bring up what he calls the Russia hoax. That in 2018 is what he talked about a lot. But this meeting, there is so much at stake, the future of Ukraine, people on the ground, war, and the incredible toll that war has taken over these past three years. So the call to Zelensky, I don't think he is going to be pleased about that

call because just listening to Vladimir Putin say how the relationship has changed and that they're talking again is not necessarily going to please Zelensky. David.

Well, Martha, your notes match mine. I have here no deal until there's a deal, according to President Trump, and that he then went on to say, I will be calling NATO shortly, and I will be calling President Zelensky, of course, of Ukraine. And, as I had mentioned, there had been a conversation earlier in the week involving President Trump, European leaders and President Zelensky, during which President Trump promised President Zelensky that he would call him right after the summit, President Trump telling

the world that the call hasn't happened, though he fully intends to do that. I want to bring in our chief foreign correspondent, Ian Pannell, because, Ian, you were watching this play out live right along with the rest of us. You have spent a lot of time in Ukraine. What did you read into what you heard?

And you and I were talking before they came out on that stage and talked about the fact that Russia now has 20 percent of Ukraine's territory, and obviously that falls into the category of what we think we heard from President Trump here. Points left, one pretty significant point. I would gather once we learn the details of this, the significant point likely involves much of that land and who is going to get much of this 20% of this territory that Russia fully intends to hold on to and that Ukraine has signaled it's not willing to

give up. Yeah I think there's far more that we don't know than we do know after that press conference. I think many people were sat glued watching the TV waiting to hear what the announcement was, and are rather perplexed now. I think the cynics would say it was much ado about nothing. There was no mention of a ceasefire, and for now the war continues. There's no indication that the guns will stop firing, the drones will stop flying, the ballistic missiles will stop landing on civilian buildings

across the country, and the trenches will continue to shoot at each other on the front lines. So there's no, at the moment, in the details that we have, there's no indication of an immediate relief for the Ukrainian people. President Zelensky will be waiting for that phone call from Donald Trump to find out what it is that they did discuss.

As you say, Vladimir Putin indicated there was an agreement. President Trump didn't go that far. He said there's no deal until there is a deal. So what are the details? And if you can't even get to the first stage of agreeing, which is what Ukraine have been pushing for, with American backing, with the backing of the so-called coalition of the willing, Britain, France and and Germany as well as other allies that you start with the ceasefire and then you go on to negotiate all those difficult details about what you do with the land that

Russia is occupying, what do you do with the 20,000 children that have been taken by Russia, how do you resolve reparations and all those issues. That was supposed to be the way that this happened but they didn't. As far as we understand, even gets a point where they could agree a temporary ceasefire, a temporary cessation of hostilities. And that is going to be deeply disappointing to many people here. If you're sat at home with your children close in arms, worrying about whether or not the

drones will start flying again tonight,'ve just heard no relief at all.

So again 716 here in the east, we're going to stay on the air until 7.30 to see if we can get any more reporting on this. Ian Pannel, of course our chief foreign correspondent who is in the capital of Kiev, reporting on how Ukrainians are likely going to receive this news that even though President Zelensky was not at the table and they were not happy about that, they were very hopeful that President Trump

would be able to convince Vladimir Putin to at least establish a ceasefire. President Trump made that very clear on Air Force One, again today on his way to Anchorage, Alaska, that he wanted the ceasefire and he wanted it today. And he said, if there wasn't't one he would not be happy. Here is that quote, I asked for a full readout I just want to make

sure that everyone's up to speed at home on this. This is the quote from President Trump a short time ago, 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 got there but we've made some headway. 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, I will call up President Zelensky and tell him about today's meeting. And so ultimately, up to them, up to them and Mary Bruce, our chief

White House correspondent, I want to go back to you in the room, obviously, the major unanswered questions, we heard Vladimir Putin use the word agreement. Any more reporting on what that could entail? And then obviously, President Trump, you know, I also take note. It's very rare that President Trump would hold a sort of a news conference like this and then not take any questions on the backside.

You know, there's a critique of all sorts of all sorts of critiques of presidents in the past, some who wouldn't take questions, some who took too many. That is not something that people have critiqued President Trump for. He often takes questions. And it was quite notable that he left the stage, even though there were questions being

shouted out and did not take any of them.

Yeah, it is incredibly rare for President Trump to come anywhere near the White House press corps and not take at least a few questions, especially on such a grand stage as this, when he knows that everyone is waiting and trying to figure out what came of this meeting. And we are still trying to get clarity on that. I can tell you our entire team is frantically trying to figure out what progress has been made. You heard Vladimir Putin, as you said, mention that there's been an agreement. The president, you read that quote from him.

He went on to say, we didn't get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there. Well, we still don't know exactly what that means, what remains to be worked out, what was the progress that was made. And you have to remember that, going into today's meeting, the president was well aware that he was facing a lot of criticism and pushback and concerns that he was already handing Vladimir Putin a win simply by meeting with him, simply by

essentially bringing Vladimir Putin out of the isolation that he has faced from Western leaders for the last three and a half years since he invaded Ukraine. Vladimir Putin today got a lot of what he wanted. He got this huge photo op, that friendly welcome from President Trump, the two of them rather chummy on the red carpet on the tarmac today got a lot of what he wanted. He got this huge photo op, that friendly welcome from President Trump, the two of them rather chummy on the red carpet on the tarmac earlier today,

then meeting one-on-one for three hours. More than that, Vladimir Putin had a chance to discuss other issues we know beyond Ukraine with President Trump and his delegation, things like nuclear arms control, trade, economic cooperation.

It appears for now he still doesn't have to have a ceasefire. And that is something that Vladimir Putin certainly does not want right now, even though Ukraine and Western leaders are trying to up the pressure on him to do that. And as, Martha, you were discussing earlier, for now he avoids those punishing sanctions. It was just a week ago, last Friday, that was supposed to be deadline day when President Trump was threatening to put new punishing sanctions on Vladimir Putin.

Instead of that, he has avoided those sanctions. He has gotten this one-on-one, face-to-face to make his case on Ukraine and a host of other issues to President Trump. And he still does not have to, it appears for now. He hasn't agreed to a ceasefire, David.

That's right. So just let's underscore this for a second here, Mary, because again, Mary, you were reporting for the days leading up to this. And in fact, there were the sanctions that were set to go into effect. Suddenly, the sanctions did not happen. President Trump announces this summit will happen instead. Vladimir Putin would be invited to American soil for this summit, the president making the argument that nothing has worked until now, that this is worth a shot to bring him here to America to give him this invite.

The sanctions were taken off the table. Then this week, in your reporting and in others from our team, President Trump did say from the White House that if there was not a ceasefire, if there was not progress, there would be, in his words, severe consequences. So that remains, again, the sanctions, the threat of potentially severe consequences.

You have to put that up against the signal that we heard from President Trump about some points left. One of them's pretty significant. The president also looking past sort of the conflict in Ukraine, talking about better relations, and in particular, business relations with Russia.

We didn't hear about sanctions or severe consequences, and we didn't hear, obviously, about any agreement in the short term for a ceasefire.

-...would be easiest to come up with.

No, we did not. And, look, the president had said, you know, that if they didn't reach a ceasefire, he would put in place those punishing economic sanctions, even though President Trump, by his own admission, has previously conceded that sanctions really don't bother Vladimir Putin. They haven't certainly done much to move the ball in the past. But he was promising that if they

couldn't reach a ceasefire here, that there would be consequences. That's one of many questions remaining here. Will there still be those consequences? And of course, he also said that if they didn't reach a ceasefire, he was going to walk away. Well, it certainly didn't look like he was walking away. Based on the brief remarks that we heard here just moments ago, it seems like he is saying, you know, let's still give this a go, even though the president clearly didn't get exactly what he wanted here.

So many questions here, Mary. Just get our control room's attention if you hear anything back from the White House. I know you've put in some calls just to see if we can get some clarity, Mary. Thank you for your reporting. Rachel Scott will be traveling. She's in the press pool traveling with the president back on Air Force One if and when he takes flight to get back to Washington.

And she was able to get questions to him on the way here as well. So perhaps that will be a window into what we're dealing with here, what we should be reporting on as far as what's been achieved or what hasn't, quite frankly. I want to bring back in Martha Raddatz, because, Martha, not only have you and I traveled to Ukraine, you recently were in Russia. You witnessed in that country what it has been like with Vladimir Putin not getting the attention of Western leaders.

He hasn't since the invasion of Ukraine. And you juxtapose that with the images of him arriving in Anchorage, Alaska, today, a very warm welcome, embrace on the red carpet, and perhaps one of the most telling images that actually just sort of traveled the world almost immediately was Vladimir Putin's smile through the presidential limousine when he got into what's called the beast with President Trump to travel to the summit together. It would seem at least as far as that's concerned, the PR part of this for Vladimir Putin is

exactly what he was looking for.

I think it's exactly what he was looking for, David, especially, as you said, in the backseat in the Beast, alone with President Trump, side by side in the US presidential limousine. Now, in Russia, when I was there, he had the military parades there that are an incredible sight to see,

lots of goose-stepping soldiers. I also, on that day in May, interviewed Dmitry Peskov, his spokesperson, and I asked him about those sanctions. And just what Mary was saying, he said, well, I understand there's pressure to speed up the process, but, you know, it's very hard to threaten Russia with sanctions.

We are a country that is not loaded and is not overloaded by sanctions. We are the country that's experiencing maximum sanctions. And we're a country that's used to living with sanctions and used to living with sanctions quite well. Now, just walking around Moscow, it's a beautiful city. There's no question about that. But people are suffering. The economy really is suffering. Their people are suffering. So

he may say that again and again. And it was pointed out to me, well, look, you know what, Starbucks left, but we've replaced it with Starz coffee. We're doing just fine. But you really dig deeper there, and there is truly an economic crisis. But Vladimir Putin doesn't seem to care about that. And if there was no ceasefire today, and if given what President Trump said,

he's now dodged those threatened ceasefire, threatened sanctions rather, a couple of times, David. Last Friday, when he agreed to this summit and said, you know, the deadline's passed, but we'll have this summit together. And today, if there is not an agreed-upon ceasefire, and as Mary said, it does not appear to be the case today, then where are those severe consequences? So, there are so many questions left, David, and so much to learn for the rest of the world

and especially there in Ukraine.

So, on this point, Martha, just before I let you go here, we have a few seconds left on this point. No deal until there's a deal, President Trump said. He said many points left we agreed to, but some points left. One point is pretty significant, he said. But, Martha, we know President Trump said going into this he wanted immediately to set up a second meeting, a second summit with President Zelensky and Putin.

Didn't hear the word cease-fire. Said there are points outstanding so it would seem any hope of this secondary meeting feels a ways off here.

It sure does and he is talking to President Zelensky. I'm sure President Zelensky was glued to the television set watching to see what was happening here in Anchorage. But it really does seem a ways off with that meeting. And you know know is it

the land swap they're stuck on David. Our chief global affairs anchor Martha Raddatz who is in Anchorage Alaska will be anchoring a special edition of This Week on Sunday. I thank you for being here on a Friday night. Our coverage continues on ABC News Live, ABCNews.com. From all of us at ABC News. Good night. taken before. He said I was special.

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And good evening everyone, I'm Keira Phillips. So glad you're streaming with us tonight. Breaking news just moments ago. President Trump and President Putin emerging from a two and a half hour closed door negotiation session. President Trump called the meeting productive. Putin shared a hope to end the conflict. But tonight, many questions remain with no ceasefire or details announced.

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, but we've made some headway. So there's no deal until there's a deal.

No deal until there's a deal. The much-anticipated meeting began today right here with President Trump on the tarmac, welcoming Vladimir Putin. The first time he's been here on U.S. soil in nearly 10 years, rolling out the red carpet, Putin greeted with B-2 bombers and fighter jets, ending his time in global exile since he invaded Ukraine three and a half years ago. Millions of people, however, in Ukraine closely watching this moment.

Russia taking over one-fifth of Ukraine's territory and a million lives. We have team coverage with Mary Bruce and Martha Raddatz in Anchorage, Ian Pannel in Ukraine, and Patrick Rievel in London, plus our lineup of military and political experts for context and analysis. But we begin with our chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce.

Tonight, after hours behind closed doors, President Trump and Russian President Putin emerging from their summit.

I expect that today's agreements 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.

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, but we've made some headway. We look forward to that, we look forward to dealing, we're gonna try and get this over with. We really made some great progress today. I've always had a fantastic relationship with President Putin, with Vladimir.

It capped an extraordinary event not seen in more than a decade, Putin touching down on American soil, walking the red carpet as Trump waited to greet him. A hearty handshake, Trump then grasping Putin's arm. As they walked to the stage, Putin looking to the sky as an American B-2 bomber flew overhead, a striking show of force. The warmth between the two leaders on full display, but the task at hand deadly serious.

Putin asked, how can the U.S. trust your word? No answer, just more smiles. Trump is escorting Putin to the presidential limo known as the beast. Putin laughing and waving as they drove off together. Earlier President Trump laying out today's objective.

I want to see a ceasefire rapidly I don't know it's going to be today, but I'm not going to be happy if it's not today. Everyone said it can't be today, but I'm just saying I want the killing to stop I'm in this to stop the killing.

But overnight. Russia continuing its bombardment of Ukraine. Rachel Scott asking the president about Putin's decision to launch those strikes.

We saw that Russia continued its violence into Ukraine last night, launching even more drones.

What did you make of that?

I think they're trying to negotiate. Maybe it's just his fabric, his genes, his genetics. But he thinks that makes him, gives him strength in negotiating. I think it hurts him.

But for Ukraine's President Zelensky, who was not invited to today's summit, the Russian strikes prove there is no, quote, indication Moscow is preparing to end this war. On the day of the negotiations, they also kill people, he added. And that says a lot.

Mr. Putin, will you agree to a ceasefire? Mr. Putin, will you commit to not pulling back? negotiations, they also kill people he added and that says a lot.

arrange this summit Putin Putin accompanied by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his top foreign advisor, Yuri Ushakov. Trump is hoping this summit will set the stage for a second meeting with Putin and Zelensky. And he says what comes next is up to those two countries, including what Trump has called swapping of territories.

I've got to let Ukraine make that decision. And I think they'll make a proper decision. But I'm not here to negotiate for Ukraine. I'm here to get them at a table.

Putin wants to broaden today's talks to cover nuclear weapons and economic cooperation with the United States.

I noticed he's bringing a lot of business people from Russia. And that's good. I like that, because they want to do business, but they're not doing business until we get the worst out.

Zelensky declaring the fate of Ukraine hangs in the balance. We count on a strong position from America, he says. Everything will depend on this.

Let's get right to our Patrick Riewel in London. Patrick, you have been covering this war from the very beginning. President Trump says he wouldn't be happy without a ceasefire. These foreign leaders obviously wanted a win today. We heard the

President say great progress was made, but still no ceasefire. In your view, without a final deal here,

who wins, who loses?

Hey, Kyria. Yeah, I mean, I think, first of all, most people watching this are confused and trying to understand where do we now stand. I think without question, though, when you look at it, Vladimir Putin has had a very good day. He has not been forced to impose a cease-fire. He is not going to face tougher sanctions yet. But, as you say, President Trump saying that great progress has been made, Vladimir Putin saying that an agreement had actually been reached, but not giving any details. And President

Trump didn't go as far as that, saying there's no deal until a deal is reached. And he suggested that there was one big point in particular that they are currently still working out. He says that he's now going to speak with Ukraine and also with NATO and European countries. I think we will learn from those countries pretty quickly whether this proposal that the two leaders have come up with is something substantial and real and plausible that Ukraine can accept, or is it ultimately just more of the negotiations that we have seen that haven't really been

real negotiations, because Vladimir Putin hasn't been putting forward plausible ideas to end the war? If he simply comes to the summit, put them to President Trump, and now he goes to Ukraine and Europe with ideas that are unacceptable, such as, again, handing over swathes of Ukrainian territory, then it means that really nothing was achieved by the summit, and simply Vladimir Putin was able to get this enormous success for propaganda and P.R. and also to avoid sanctions.

But I think it's true we do have to wait and see. It's possible, you know, Vladimir Putin said in his speech that he said that Ukraine also needs to have security guarantees, that he understands that, and that suggests that there is some kind of idea that they were discussing. We'll find out again if that's meaningful or not.

But certainly, without question, this has been a very good day for Vladimir Putin, Kyra.

Well, we heard in that press conference Vladimir Putin call Ukraine a brotherly nation.

What did you think of that?

Yeah, I mean it wasn't surprising because throughout this war, even as he has been launching missiles every night and killing thousands of Ukrainians, Vladimir Putin has repeated over and over that Ukraine is basically part of Russia. It's part of his approach, and it's part of why Ukrainians say that he denies the existence of Ukraine, which — and is why they say that he's waging a genocide against them. He believes that Ukraine is essentially part of Russia, a key part of the Russian empire, and to him, ultimately, there's no difference between Russians and Ukrainians.

Obviously, Ukrainians strongly disagree with that. And I think what we saw there again is Vladimir Putin has not changed his spots at all. His view of the war remains the same. His ideas of Ukraine, I'm sure, remain the same. We now just have to wait and see, has he finally decided that he can try and achieve his goal of subjugating Ukraine, perhaps through

other means than continuing the war right now. But for now, there is no cease-fire. There's been attacks overnight in Ukraine. The fighting continues to rage on the front line. And there's every reason to think that Vladimir Putin will try to drag this out further, so

that his troops can make more progress in the weeks to come, Kyra.

All right, Patrick Rievel, appreciate your reporting, of course. And for more on the state of the battle, our ABC contributor and retired colonel, Steve Ganyard. Steve, what do you make of what you just heard there from President Trump and President Putin?

Yeah, Kira, I think it was a bit unrealistic to think that we were going to get a ceasefire tonight. If you think about it, Putin is a very wily negotiator. So he just killed 200,000 of his own countrymen. And for him to say, here's a cease-fire, and go home, and people will say, well, what did you get for it? He was not offered anything. So there was no real negotiation. Yes, he got the one-on-one

with President Trump here. But the real negotiations are going to take time. I do think that there's a positive aspect here, though. At the end, President Trump said, we will see you pretty soon. I also think that the Trump team would have walked away if they did not believe that there was a pathway to getting Putin, Zelensky, and Trump sitting down together and beginning to negotiate a true end, a true cease-fire. But that's going to take a lot of hard-nosed horse trading.

It's not going to happen overnight. And Putin has to be able to go back to the Russian people and say, this is what I got for the negotiation. This is what we got for the cost of 200,000

lives of our countrymen.

While you're there in front of the map,

show us where things stand right now in this war. Yeah, we know, Keira, that the front lines here really have not changed in six months. This is a static battlefield. This is almost like Western Europe in 1917, where it's almost trench warfare. Drones have changed the nature of warfare, so anything that moves humans, vehicles, is going to die by robocopter. So we know that there are all sorts of missiles and drones

being launched into civilian areas. That senseless killing will continue. But nothing's really going to change here where progress is measured in feet and miles. This is essentially a static battlefield. Nothing that went on today is going to change that.

All right, Steve Ganyard, appreciate you so much. Let's get straight to our chief White House correspondent, Mary Bruce, who's there in Anchorage. She was in the room for that press conference that just wrapped up moments ago. Still a lot of unanswered questions. Mary, we didn't hear the word ceasefire.

And no, we certainly did not. I can tell you this room was essentially dumbfounded. The two leaders coming out alluding to progress being made, Vladimir Putin using the word agreement but not going into any specifics. The president, President Trump, had said coming into this that he wanted a ceasefire or there would be severe economic consequences.

As you note, ceasefire wasn't mentioned at all. So it certainly seems that that is not where we are, that President Trump didn't get what he wanted. But he clearly got enough to stay in this game. The question is, what was that? What was the progress that was made? I can tell you we are frantically trying to figure that out. We're hoping President Trump will speak to reporters in the press pool as he makes his way back to Washington. But he was facing a lot of criticism and pushback going into this meeting from those who said,

you know, just sitting down with Vladimir Putin hands him a win. And Vladimir Putin, you could argue, got a lot out of this. He is walking away seemingly with no ceasefire, something he has been avoiding now for some time, despite the pressure that's being put on him by Ukrainian President Zelensky, President Trump and other European and Western leaders. He also got to have a huge big one-on-one with President Trump on this global stage. He had been

isolated for the last three and a half years. Today he was invited back onto American soil for this, you know, friendly, chummy photo op with the president. We saw them on the red carpet on the tarmac earlier, Putin smiling, chuckling. So he was, you know, welcomed back onto the world stage. And then perhaps most critically, he appears not facing those harsh sanctions that President Trump had threatened. As we mentioned, he threatened those economic consequences. It's not clear if

Trump is still going to slap him with sanctions. And even Trump has admitted that sanctions don't really do much to deter Vladimir Putin. A week ago, Putin was facing the threat of sanctions. That was Trump's deadline day. Now a week later, he is leaving Anchorage, no sanctions, no ceasefire, and with a remarkable moment for all of the world to see. And you can imagine, I can only imagine what is going through President Zelensky's mind right now. We know that President Trump said he would be speaking with him.

He was hoping that this meeting would lead to a trilateral between Zelensky, Putin, and with Trump there as well. That wasn't mentioned here on the stage either tonight, Kyra.

And I keep thinking of President Zelensky saying that Putin is bluffing. Mary, thank you so much. We're going to get straight to our chief global affairs correspondent, Martha Raddatz, now. And Martha, let me ask you, let's play off what Mary was saying there. At the end of the day, this looks like a very successful photo op on U.S. soil for Vladimir Putin. It sure does. And again, we just have to go back to those images. on U.S. soil for Vladimir Putin?

It sure does. And again, we just have to go back to those images. Those images will exist forever. This is a historic summit, and those are the historic images from this summit. That red carpet, that tandem in the back of the beast, the presidential limousine, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, and a smiling Vladimir Putin looking out from that limousine, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, and a smiling Vladimir Putin

looking out from that limousine. And this press conference, which wasn't a press conference, obviously, because he didn't take questions, neither one of them took questions. I thought it was interesting that Vladimir Putin started that. I also, Kyra, I'm going to one thing that Vladimir Putin said. He said at the top, the long-term settlement must resolve the underlying conditions for

the conflict. A couple of months ago, I was in Moscow, and I interviewed Dmitry Peskov. And Dmitry Peskov went back to that very point as well. We don't know whether this is the sticking point now that Donald Trump talked about, but this is what Peskov said, because I said, what is the root cause? The root cause is that gradually Ukraine was dragging into NATO.

NATO was moving towards our borders, pumping up Ukraine with weapons, pumping up to Ukraine with military personnel from NATO and military advisers. We have known that Russia does not want Ukraine to be part of NATO. But at the time, in May, when I interviewed Peskov as well, they didn't want any more weapons going into Ukraine. So there are so many different issues here that this could be the sticking point to any

kind of ceasefire. What they made progress on, we don't know. And hopefully we'll find out later this evening. But there are sticking points that have always been there. And whether any of those went away, the really tough ones, the so-called land swap that Donald

Trump talks about, or sticking points like this and NATO and Ukraine and security agreements, Vladimir Putin did say, and I think he really did give us more information than Donald Trump, that Ukraine deserves to have, I think he said something give us more information than Donald Trump that Ukraine deserves to have, I think he said something like deserves to have military security or some sort of security. But beyond that, we just don't know what those issues are.

What we do know is that Vladimir Putin can leave Anchorage, Alaska with those images back on the world stage, no longer isolated because of his invasion of Russia in February 2022, where you've had thousands and thousands and thousands of people who have died.

Kira.

And Martha, just because you have made several trips, one recently when Vladimir Putin turned to President Trump and said, well, the next meeting in Moscow and the you saw the president sort of caught him off guard and kind of uncomfortably made a chuckle and not sure about that. I could get into trouble for doing that. Do you see that actually happening?

Well, first of all, he said President Trump has said the next meeting will be with Trump Zelensky and himself that's what he wanted he didn't confirm that that meeting will actually happen obviously I really can't see Zelensky going to Moscow not not anyway.

Now that would be something that everybody would be watching as well. Martha Raddatz, appreciate you. Thank you so much. Let's bring in now Ivo Dalgert, former U.S. ambassador to NATO and senior fellow at Harvard Belfer Center. Good to have you, Ambassador. A lot of unknowns coming out of this summit. I'm just curious about your initial thoughts. How do you compare what happened here to the last time the president and Vladimir Putin were together, not on U.S. soil, but did you see a difference in tone at all? No, and I think the outcome, as far as we know,

since we don't know much, probably couldn't have gotten any worse for Ukraine and for the security situation, and any better for Vladimir Putin. As all of your correspondents have rightly said, this was a great day for the Russian president.

And it's not such a great day for the Russian president. And it's not such a great day for the American president. It was one of the reasons that our European allies and indeed President Zelensky kept on saying, are you really sure you want to do this? This is probably not the best way of moving the ball forward. There was the hope that President Trump would be able to convince President Putin to end this war, but there was also a fear that somehow President Putin would once again be able to play the

United States and others for an endgame that serves his purpose and his purpose was served. He is now out of the doldrums. He is no longer isolated. He was welcomed with a red carpet and a flyover and an applause by the President of the United States on U.S. soil. He drove in the beast, the presidential limousine, something extraordinary.

I've never seen a foreign leader being inside it, let alone an adversary. And he's walking away, apparently, without any of the cost and any of the pressure that President Trump said even today and on his way to Anchorage was going to come if there was no deal. There is no deal. The president said there is no deal. It now looks like we are back where we were from day one. A war that will continue, people who will be dying,

and the United States uncertain of whether it is going to be involved on the side of Ukraine, on the side of Russia, or on any side for that matter.

So then let me ask you, do you believe that a ceasefire is not in the works here? We heard Putin say, we're going to turn the page. I have a trustworthy tone with Trump. And then we heard president Trump say, I just need to make some calls to NATO.

I need to call president Zelensky. I need to call our allies. It was an extremely productive meeting. Okay, let's read between the lines here because you have Vladimir Putin known as the grand manipulator, but you also have President Trump, who's known as the guy that is, you know, capable of making the deal, the grand negotiator.

But it sounds like what you're saying, do you believe nothing was achieved here?

Well, again, we'll have to see. And perhaps the president needs to talk to the NATO leaders and, importantly, to President Zelensky, because there is something that he needs from them in order to move forward. That is possible. I think it's just as likely President Trump has a tendency of always painting a bright picture, even when the picture isn't as bright as it is. So he will say the meeting was very productive, even though there wasn't anything specific that came out of it.

Let's be clear. If there was a ceasefire agreed, which is, after all, the only thing that the president wanted and that Vladimir Putin had said, yes, I'll agree to the ceasefire, we knew that President Zelensky would agree to the ceasefire, we knew that President Zelensky would agree to the ceasefire. He's done so for many months.

If there was a ceasefire agreed, we would know that by now. If there's no ceasefire, then the question is, what are we talking about? There's no talking about land swaps. There's no talking about agreements until there is a ceasefire. There's no talking while the guns are being shot at each other. There's particularly no talking without the Ukrainians present at the scene. One of the reasons why

Ukraine should have been here is in order to make sure that whatever agreement is there, the Ukrainians can live with. The president is not making, can't make a deal on behalf of the Ukrainians. He may be able to talk to President Putin and get some ideas, and those presumably are the ones he's putting forward now. But I'm deeply skeptical that anything serious was agreed here, other than the fact that Vladimir Putin has now gotten what he wants.

He is no longer in the doghouse. He is in Alaska on US soil, being greeted by the president of the United States. And the price he had to pay for that was very, very little, if anything.

Ambassadors, stay with me. We're looking at live pictures right now. We're actually seeing the motorcades of Vladimir Putin in addition to the president of the United States. It looks like they may both be arriving at each of their aircraft leaving Anchorage, Alaska here. And while we watch these live pictures unfold and we watch the two presidents leave, Ambassador

Zelensky had said that Putin was bluffing. He warned President Trump that Putin was bluffing. Did the president of the United States get hoodwinked here?

Well, we don't know, but I don't think we can exclude it. There's no evidence right now that Mr. Putin was willing to give an inch on anything. It's very unclear what agreement could have been reached if it doesn't include a ceasefire. As long as the missiles are flying and the drones are hitting both at the front lines and cities and apartment buildings around Ukraine,

it's hard to see how Ukraine is going to be able to agree to anything.

Ambassador Ivo Dahlgaard, really appreciate your insight. Good to have you along here for our live coverage. I want to bring our chief foreign correspondent Ian Pannel now. He's with us from Kiev. And as we continue to watch these live pictures, Ian, of President Vladimir Putin, actually already went up the steps, waved, smiled goodbye.

He's now entered the aircraft. We believe President Trump is doing a sit-down interview right now before he departs Alaska. But you and I have been talking all afternoon about the fact, or about the Ukrainians. You're there in Kiev.

And they are all sitting back, watching this, seeing the man who has led a war that has killed thousands of their people walking a red carpet, being greeted by the President of the United States, shaking hands, the President even giving a clap as he was coming down the red carpet. You made it clear that's a gut punch to the Ukrainian people.

Now, listening to all the analysis and the context after the two and a half hours of negotiating. And the two presidents come to the mics and it looks like right now at this point we don't have anything to talk about except that the president says he needs to make some calls and Vladimir Putin saying hope you'll come to Moscow so we can figure things out. I mean it's very confusing. Your thoughts.'s very confusing. Your thoughts?

Yeah, very confusing. The word nothing burger is being thrown around here. People are very confused, very perplexed, wondering what is it that they just looked at other than a man who's been charged with war crimes. The man who started an invasion, who led his troops into battle against a country, an unwarranted invasion, whose troops are accused of, again, war crimes, of sexual abuse, of destruction, of pillaging, of occupying 20 percent of Ukrainian land, of conducting an illegal invasion, being greeted with the warmest of welcomes, being greeted as an equal on the world

stage next to President Trump. In fact, the image of three American soldiers down on their hands and knees trying to fix the red carpet to the stairwell that led to Vladimir Putin's plane is the one thing that is being passed around here in Ukraine. They see it as demeaning, as a sucker punch. People say they feel sick by the sight of it.

And if there had been something that came out of it that was tangible, perhaps they could swallow it. But so far, there doesn't seem to be.

And the president's saying no deal until there's a deal. And as we say, stay tuned. Ian Pannel, thank you so much. That's our show for this hour. I'm Keira Phillips. ABC News Live is here for you

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