BREAKING: ‘Great Progress’ After Initial Talks With Putin, Trump Says

President Donald Trump emerged from three hours of backroom negotiations with Vladimir Putin on Friday night, declaring that “great progress” has been made with the Russian leader on ending the war in Ukraine.

During a joint appearance, Trump spun a positive take on his first face-to-face conversation with Putin since returning to office, while Russian aides stressed that no “breakthrough” had occurred.

Trump told reporters he has “always had a fantastic relationship with President Putin” but that it was impeded because of U.S. investigations into the 2016 election.

“We had many, many tough meetings, good meetings,” Trump said about their history together.

“We were interfered with by the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. I’ve made it a little bit tougher to deal with, but he understood it,” Trump said.

On Ukraine, Trump stated he and Putin “made some headway” and “great progress” toward resolving the war, but underscored that “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 [Volodymyr] Zelensky and tell him about today’s meeting. It’s ultimately up to them,” Trump said.

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

Trump stated that Zelensky must “agree” to terms of a deal that Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and envoy Steve Witkoff discussed with Putin today, though he did not delve into the specifics of what such a deal might mean.

Putin kicked off the appearance, speaking for about eight minutes ahead of the more loquacious Trump, stating that the talks were made with a “respectful, constructive and mutually respectful atmosphere.”

The Russian leader reiterated his thanks to Trump for hosting him in Alaska. “It is quite logical to meet here, because our countries, although separated by oceans, are in fact close neighbors,” Putin said.

Neither took questions.

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Trump ended his remarks by emphasizing he plans to begin making calls following up on some of the terms discussed in their meeting today.

“I’m going to start making a few phone calls and tell them what happened,” Trump said.

Putin made clear that he views the security of Russia as tantamount to reaching an end to the war with Ukraine. In June Russia suffered a blistering attack by Ukrainian-controlled drones deep inside its country.

“The situation in Ukraine has to do with the fundamental threats to our security,” Putin stated.

While Russia is interested in putting an end to what’s happening in Ukraine, Putin said “we’re convinced that in order to to make the settlement lasting and long term, we need to eliminate all the primary roots, primary causes of that conflict,” per CNN.

“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,” he continued.

“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 to that goal and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine,” he added.