Kyiv waited as Alaska talks ended without a deal
A look back at the day after the Anchorage summit left Ukraine's president outside the room and no agreement announced.
What did Ukraine take from a summit it was not invited to? On 16 August 2025, the question hung over Kyiv one day after Russian president Vladimir Putin travelled to Alaska to meet United States president Donald Trump.
The meeting took place on 15 August 2025 at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson in Anchorage. Its stated purpose was to discuss pathways to bring an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not invited.
The main topic was the war itself, yet the summit ended without an agreement being announced. That was the picture as 16 August began: two leaders had talked about Ukraine's future, and the country's own president had not been at the table.
What came afterwards
The background to the summit shows that the story did not end there. Trump later intimated that, in his view, the onus was now on Ukraine to cede territory in order to end the war. That was a later development and was not part of the picture on 16 August 2025.
For Ukraine's government, the day was therefore defined by exclusion and by the absence of a deal. The summit produced no announced settlement, and the question of who would shape the terms of any peace remained open.
