During the joint press conference following nearly three hours of talks with Trump, Putin stated that in 2022, he had cautioned former US President Biden that the tensions between the two nations should not escalate to a point of no return.
“Today, when President Trump says had he been the president back then, there would have been no war, I believe that is the case. There would have been no war had President Trump been president at that time because I and President Trump have had very good trust-based relations, and I am confident that if we had stayed on that path, we could have moved as quickly as possible to a resolution of the conflict in Ukraine,” he said.
“During the last contact with the previous administration in 2022, I tried to convince my previous American colleague that the situation should not be brought to the point of no return when it comes to hostilities. I said it directly back then that it was a big mistake,” he further stated.
Putin also thanked Trump for the “atmosphere of trust” at their meeting in Alaska, media reported. “I would like to thank Trump for working together and maintaining a friendly and trusting atmosphere in the talks. The key thing is that both parties were determined to achieve results,” Putin said at the joint press conference with Trump, as quoted by Russian news agency TASS.
Putin described his talks with US President Donald Trump in Alaska as “positive and constructive.” Trump failed to secure an agreement from Putin on Friday to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, falling short in his most significant move yet to stop the bloodshed, even after rolling out the red carpet for the man who started it.
