Putin jabs Joe Biden by saying he would have never invaded Ukraine if Trump were in charge
The Russian leader confirmed that if President Donald Trump were still in office at the time in 2022, he wouldn't have started the war more than three years ago.
Putin said during remarks at a joint press conference in Anchorage, Alaska on Friday that he warned Biden that he shouldn't let the situation progress to 'the point of no return when it would come to hostilities.'
'I said it quite directly back then that it's a big mistake,' Putin said, according to a real-time translation.
He insisted: 'President Trump saying that if he was the president back then there would be no war, and I'm quite sure that would indeed be so, I can confirm that.'
Putin's comments were the ultimate flattery on an impressionable president, who he was desperately trying to keep from fully embracing Ukraine and Europe's cause.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that he would have been able to use his relationship with Putin to stop Russia from invading Ukraine if he were reelected in 2020.
On June 16, 2021, Biden and Putin met in-person for a summit in Geneva, Switzerland amid rising tensions between Moscow and Washington, D.C.
Just eight months later on February 24, 2022, Putin invaded Ukraine, kick-starting a deadly war that still wages on today and has left thousands dead and displaced.
Trump's negotiations with Putin appear to be Ukraine's last chance to get an end to the bloodshed and land grab by Russia.
European leaders have expressed concern that Trump will concede too much land, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has recognized that a peace deal might need to include handing over more land area to Putin's regime.
President Putin said on Friday that having a good trustworthy business relationship with Trump makes him confident that 'we can come to see the end of the conflict in Ukraine.'
Though the two leaders acknowledged there is still a far way to go. Additionally, no ceasefire was announced in their joint press conference.
'I have every reason to believe that moving down this path we can come to see the end of the conflict in Ukraine,' Putin said at the end of his remarks.
And if the greeting between Trump and Putin was any indication of their relationship, it's very likely the two are chummy.
The two were smiling as they saw each other in the flesh for the first time since 2018.
With an abundance of physical contact and a round of applause from Trump for the authoritarian leader, body language expert Judi James tells the Daily Mail that he gave Putin 'the ultimate ego-stroke' by publicly treating him like a celebrity guest.
Putin appeared visibly pleased with how the lengthy greeting went, and James said he was left 'purring' with delight.
Experts warn that Trump already handed Putin a 'victory' by inviting him to U.S. soil for the first time in more than a decade and agreeing to exclude Zelensky.
But James notes that the U.S. president's tone swiftly altered when they were in a room for their official talks.
He took a more 'heavyweight, power pose' as it was time to get down to business, she notes.
'After the overkill cordiality of his greeting ritual Trump's grim expression and his tapping fingertips here suddenly gave him a tougher and less optimistic look,' James notes.
After their nearly three-hour face-to-face meeting, Trump and Putin took turns speaking in a 12-minute joint press conference. They took no questions.
The meeting was the first time they sat down in-person since Trump came back into office.
It also was the first time that Putin stepped foot on U.S. soil since he was in New York City in 2015 for a United Nations General Assembly gathering where he also met with then-President Barack Obama.
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Reuters
18 minutes ago
- Reuters
Outline emerges of Putin's offer to end his war in Ukraine
LONDON, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Russia would relinquish tiny pockets of occupied Ukraine and Kyiv would cede swathes of its eastern land which Moscow has been unable to capture, under peace proposals discussed by Russia's Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump at their Alaska summit, sources briefed on Moscow's thinking said. The account emerged the day after Trump and Putin met at an airforce base in Alaska, the first encounter between a U.S. president and the Kremlin chief since before the start of the Ukraine conflict. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is due to travel to Washington on Monday to discuss with Trump a possible settlement of the full-scale war, which Putin launched in February 2022. Although the summit failed to secure the ceasefire he said he had wanted, Trump said in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity that he and Putin had discussed land transfers and security guarantees for Ukraine, and had "largely agreed". "I think we're pretty close to a deal," he said, adding: "Ukraine has to agree to it. Maybe they'll say 'no'." The two sources, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said their knowledge of Putin's proposals was mostly based on discussions between leaders in Europe, the U.S. and Ukraine, and noted it was not complete. Trump briefed Zelenskiy and European leaders on his summit discussions early on Saturday. It was not immediately clear if the proposals by Putin were an opening gambit to serve as a starting point for negotiations or more like a final offer that was not subject to discussion. At face value, at least some of the demands would present huge challenges for Ukraine's leadership to accept. Putin's offer ruled out a ceasefire until a comprehensive deal is reached, blocking a key demand of Zelenskiy, whose country is hit daily by Russian drones and ballistic missiles. Under the proposed Russian deal, Kyiv would fully withdraw from the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions in return for a Russian pledge to freeze the front lines in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the sources said. Ukraine has already rejected any retreat from Ukrainian land such as the Donetsk region, where its troops are dug in and which Kyiv says serves as a crucial defensive structure to prevent Russian attacks deeper into its territory. Russia would be prepared to return comparatively small tracts of Ukrainian land it has occupied in the northern Sumy and northeastern Kharkiv regions, the sources said. Russia holds pockets of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions that total around 440 square km, according to Ukraine's Deep State battlefield mapping project. Ukraine controls around 6,600 square km of Donbas, which comprises the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and is claimed by Russia. Although the Americans have not spelled this out, the sources said they knew Russia's leader was also seeking - at the very least - formal recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014. It was not clear if that meant recognition by the U.S. government or, for instance, all Western powers and Ukraine. Kyiv and its European allies reject formal recognition of Moscow's rule in the peninsula. They said Putin would also expect the lifting of at least some of the array of sanctions on Russia. However, they could not say if this applied to U.S. as well as European sanctions. Trump said on Friday he did not immediately need to consider retaliatory tariffs on countries such as China for buying Russian oil - which is subject to a range of Western sanctions - but might have to "in two or three weeks." Ukraine would also be barred from joining the NATO military alliance, though Putin seemed to be open to Ukraine receiving some kind of security guarantees, the sources said. However, they added that it was unclear what this meant in practice. European leaders said Trump had discussed security guarantees for Ukraine during their conversation on Saturday and also broached an idea for an "Article 5"-style guarantee outside the NATO military alliance. NATO regards any attack launched on one of its 32 members as an attack on all under its Article 5 clause. Joining the Atlantic alliance is a strategic objective for Kyiv that is enshrined in the country's constitution. Russia would also demand official status for the Russian language inside parts of, or across, Ukraine, as well as the right of the Russian Orthodox Church to operate freely, the sources said. Ukraine's security agency accuses the Moscow-linked church of abetting Russia's war on Ukraine by spreading pro-Russian propaganda and housing spies, something denied by the church which says it has cut canonical ties with Moscow. Ukraine has passed a law banning Russia-linked religious organisations, of which it considers the church to be one. However, it has not yet started enforcing the ban.
Telegraph
18 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Once again Vladimir Putin has left Donald Trump looking weak
SIR – The sight of Donald Trump applauding Vladimir Putin, the butcher of Ukraine, when the two met in Alaska was the most powerful symbol yet of Mr Trump's weakness ('Putin got exactly what he wanted from Trump', Analysis, August 16). He even purred at Putin's words: 'Next time in Moscow.' No deal, no ceasefire and no mention of sanctions: the Kremlin achieved a rout. Europe must now redouble its support for Volodymyr Zelensky. Adrian Charles Enfield, Middlesex SIR – For all Mr Trump's boasts, his summit with Putin produced no deal and no movement from a war-mongering Moscow. Russia left with a clear diplomatic win, embarrassing America. Mr Trump's idea of '10/10', as he described the meeting, is a curious one. Sebastian Monblat London SE14 SIR – No one can blame Donald Trump for trying, but he needs to face reality. Vladimir Putin is not interested in finishing a war he thinks he is winning. He regards Volodymyr Zelensky as the illegitimate leader of a country he doesn't recognise. He will only accept peace if it involves the capitulation of Ukraine as an independent country. David Kenny Tredunnock, Monmouthshire SIR – I am appalled that on VJ Day, while we honoured those who both died and survived, Mr Trump was insensitive enough to meet the aggressor Putin in his pursuit of a Nobel Peace Prize. Nick Kester Wattisfield, Suffolk SIR – If Nato had deployed into Ukraine before Vladimir Putin's invasion, it would not be in the position it finds itself in now. The alliance has been shown up as weak, and seems to have forgotten that deterrence is a proven way to contain military aggression. Lt Col Jeremy Prescott (retd) Southsea, Hampshire
The Independent
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