Moment flustered Putin winces as he's bombarded with questions from the free press asking him if he will 'stop killing civilians'
Sat alongside Donald Trump ahead of their meeting in Alaska on Friday, Vladimir Putin looked visibly uncomfortable as he was queried about a possible ceasefire.
As members of the free press were ushered out of the room, Putin found himself surrounded by US journalists that were seeking accountability for the Russian leader.
While President Trump appeared to be appreciative of the press' questions, remarking: ' Thank you very much, thank you', Putin, however, seemed somewhat out of his depth.
Indeed, his slight smile quickly fell as one reporter shouted out: 'Mr Putin, will you break ceasefire?', before another journalist asked: 'Will you commit to not killing any more civilians?'
In response, he then appeared to put his hands to his mouth and say something inaudible before making another face of confusion as another journalist queried: 'President Putin, why should President Trump trust your word now?'
However, before Mr Putin had an opportunity to respond further, the press were ushered out of the room.
Following Mr Putin's run-in with the crowd of passionate reporters, both him and Mr Trump began their historic crunch talks.
During their two-and-a-half-hour summit, the two were understood to have failed to reach an agreed deal on Ukraine, with President Trump declaring in a press conference afterwards: 'there's no deal until there's a deal'.
Despite failing to yield an immediate result, the US President appeared upbeat, saying that there were 'many, many points' that the pair 'agreed on' but that there was one issue - 'the most significant' - that they had not cracked.
'We didn't get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there,' he added, without divulging any specifics.
Referring to the Ukrainians, he said that 'ultimately, it's up to them' who have to 'agree with' what his administration think.
He finished it off by thanking Putin once more and saying: 'We'll speak to you very soon, and probably see you again very soon. Thank you very much, Vladimir.'
Putin then seemed to catch the President by surprise as he responded in English by asking, 'Next time in Moscow? '
A visibly stunned Mr Trump said: 'Oh, that's an interesting one...
Prior to the near three-hour meeting, Putin had praised Mr Trump as his 'dear neighbour', thanking his administration for his 'strive to get to the crux of the matter' as the two nations 'pave the path towards peace'
'I'll get a little heat on that one, but I can see it possibly happening. Thank you very much. Thank you all.'
There was no mention of a ceasefire during the 12-minute press conference, with zero questions taken before both presidents shook hands, briefly posed for pictures and then sauntered out of the room.
Prior to the near three-hour meeting, Putin had praised Mr Trump as his 'dear neighbour', thanking his administration for his 'strive to get to the crux of the matter' as the two nations 'pave the path towards peace'.
Mr Putin also revealed that he had greeted Mr Trump by telling him: 'Good afternoon, dear neighbour. Very good to see you in good health and to see you alive.'
Making reference to Mr Trump's frequent blaming of the war on Biden, Putin said: When President Trump said that if he was the president back then, there would have been no war, I'm quite sure that it would indeed be. So I can confirm that.'
He also added that he has 'always considered the Ukrainian nation… a brotherly nation'.
Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev told Interfax news agency that the Trump-Putin meeting had gone 'incredibly well'.
However, Ukrainian politician Oleksandr Merezhko slammed the summit as a 'failure'. He said: 'I think it's a failure because Putin was again talking about security concerns and used his usual rhetoric,' he told The New York Times. 'I don't see any changes.'
On Sunday morning, the US President hit back at his critics, posting on his social media platform Truth Social
On Sunday morning, the US President hit back at his critics, posting on his social media platform Truth Social: 'It's incredible how the Fake News violently distorts the TRUTH when it comes to me.
'There is NOTHING I can say or do that would lead them to write or report honestly about me. I had a great meeting in Alaska on Biden's stupid War, a war that should have never happened!!!'
Only minutes later, he posted: 'If I got Russia to give up Moscow as part of the Deal, the Fake News, and their PARTNER, the Radical Left Democrats, would say I made a terrible mistake and a very bad deal.
'That's why they are the FAKE NEWS! Also, they should talk about the 6 WARS, etc., I JUST STOPPED!!! MAGA.'
It comes as Volodymyr Zelensky has said that giving up land for peace in a future agreement with Russia could be 'impossible'.
Speaking in Brussels today, the Ukrainian president insisted that his country's constitution made it 'impossible to give up territory or trade land'.
He added: 'Since the territorial issue is so important, it should be discussed only by the leaders of Ukraine and Russia at a trilateral meeting.'
'We need real negotiations, which means we can start where the front line is now.'
Pictured: President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed to Melsbroek Air Base near Brussels today. Zelensky was speaking ahead of a virtual meeting with European leaders and before he travels to Washington to meet with Donald Trump
Zelensky was speaking ahead of a virtual meeting with European leaders and before he travels to Washington to meet with Donald Trump.
The Ukranian leader will be accompanied by several European allies, including Sir Keir Starmer, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, German chancellor Friedrich Merz and France's Emmanuel Macron.
Other European leaders confirming they will go tomorrow included Finnish president Alexander Stubb, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni and Nato secretary general Mark Rutte.
Zelensky reiterated his position that it was necessary to establish a ceasefire in order to then negotiate a final deal.
He also said that Ukraine did not yet know all the demands made by Putin at the meeting with Trump on Friday, adding that it would take a long time to go over them - and that this was not possible under 'the pressure of weapons'.
Downing Street has insisted that Sir Keir and other allies stand ready to support the next phase of talks to end the war.
A statement from No 10 said: 'At the meeting that will take place at the White House tomorrow, the Prime Minister, with other European partners, stands ready to support this next phase of further talks and will reaffirm that his backing for Ukraine will continue as long as it takes.'
Yesterday, Sir Keir commended Mr Trump for bringing the conflict 'closer than ever' to an end.
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More than a million Russians have been killed or seriously wounded on the battlefields of Ukraine. But there is one man who owes his life to the continuing slaughter. For Vladimir Putin, an outbreak of peace means certain death – by assassination, overthrow and execution, or in an international prison cell as a war criminal. The Russian president's only credible hope of survival in the gangster state he has himself created is to prolong the 'special military operation' in Ukraine or to win in such outrageously successful terms that he can turn his attention to other former client states, other victims. Survival, after all, was Putin's objective in launching the invasion in 2022. In his interminable ramblings about history, the Russian president makes great pretence that all of Ukraine – not just the eastern regions of Donbas, Donetsk and Crimea – is part of Russia 's empire. 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If the Ukrainians had not fought so ferociously against an enemy who outnumbers them many times over, Putin would have turned his war machine on another target – quite probably Poland. War is the reason he has remained Russia's ruler for more than 25 years. If he had not been able to create distractions, he would have been booted out of office long ago. Standards of living have been slowly eroded, to the point that many people are worse off than they were even under the Soviet government. Russia's economy has stalled, inflation has soared to 10 per cent and even the country's much-touted energy revenues are in decline. Corruption is too weak a word to describe the wholesale plundering that replaced Communist bureaucracy. Russia is the ultimate mafia state and Putin is its godfather. I have good reason to know. There has been a price on my head since 2005, when I was denied entry to Russia and put on a wanted list in a naked bid by Putin to take control of my asset management firm and steal $230 million of taxes my business had paid to the Russian government. Four years later, my lawyer and close friend Sergei Magnitsky was beaten to death in a Russian isolation cell for exposing this vast fraud. Murder by the state has become so common in Russia that the death of any prominent figure is widely assumed to be an assassination – typically by car bomb, poisoning or falling from a high window. Putin is paranoid about his personal safety – and with good cause. As instability rumbles, he will be all-too aware of the threats that loom from anti-government activists, foreign 'enemies' and even power-hungry officials inside his own tent. One way or another, it is very likely that when he leaves the Kremlin, it will be in a coffin. Like any gangster, Putin's primary instinct is for survival. After that comes money. When he flew to Alaska for the so-called peace talks last Friday, he had two real objectives: to avoid financial penalties; and re-establish himself as a respected international power-broker. In both of these aims, he succeeded. In truth, Donald Trump had already been outmanoeuvred before the US presidential jets touched down in Anchorage. He had boxed himself into a corner by repeatedly boasting before last year's elections that he was going to end the war in 24 hours. When that proved impossible, Trump issued a series of ultimatums, with much tub-thumping about tariffs, sanctions and taxes if Putin did not agree to a ceasefire. Each of those deadlines passed without consequences. Trump had already lost much of his leverage when he ceased sending military aid to Ukraine. And when Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky was bullied in front of the cameras at the White House in February, Putin knew he had carte blanche to continue waging war indefinitely. But this did not guarantee that the Kremlin delegation could safely thumb their noses at the Trump administration on American soil. The US President does have the power, after all, to cripple Russia's economy if he chooses. This cannot be done by direct measures. But, indirectly, Trump can wield financial doomsday weapons. By threatening China, India and Brazil with sky-high tariffs, he can make it impossible for Moscow's major trading partners to keep doing business with Russian companies. And, with no one to buy his oil and gas or send him weapons, Putin would swiftly be finished. Friday's so-called summit, then, was an opportunity for the Kremlin to ensure the disaster didn't happen. So, Putin gave Trump everything he needed – starting with praise. The war would never have happened, he said, if Trump had been President in 2022. Every gangster needs a fall-guy, and former president Joe Biden fits that bill. Next, Putin offered empty pledges that his goal was peace. The only obstacle, he said, was Ukraine's war-mongering government. This has been his disingenuous position from the outset: if the Ukrainians would simply accept they have no right to independence, Russia could rule their country without any need for violence. Finally, and behind the scenes, he will have ensured Trump is fully rewarded. We don't know what private deals might have been done under the table in regard, for example, to Ukraine's mineral wealth. But we do know that Trump is a man who regards other countries as 'real estate', waiting to be exploited. We also know he accepted a luxury Boeing 747 worth an estimated $400 million – complete with gold-coloured walls and furnishings – from the Qatari royal family when he signed up to a business partnership with them. Whether Putin has found ways to outdo this, we do not know. But however it was managed, Russia has avoided those Armageddon tariffs. Yet that was only half of Putin's agenda in Alaska. He was also intent on demonstrating his legitimacy as a world leader. He could have been arrested as a war criminal the moment his plane landed. Right now, he should be where his crimes deserve – wearing an orange jumpsuit, shackled in a cage in Guantanamo Bay. But there was never the slightest risk of that. Instead, he has flaunted his power, reminding the world that he is 'untouchable', however illusory – in reality – that might be. For Russia is a laden juggernaut, labouring up a steep hill that never ends. The driver dares not take his foot off the accelerator, because he will stall fatally – and be dragged out of the driving seat. Putin has to keep going, ignoring the screams from the engine, mowing down anyone in his path. And he will.
