U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday denied claims by senior Russian officials that Washington and Moscow had reached an agreement on ending the war in Ukraine during last year’s presidential summit in Alaska.
“There was a proposal in Alaska, but there was no agreement. If there had been an agreement, we would have had an end of the war,” Rubio told reporters, reiterating Washington’s readiness to play a “constructive role” in peace talks.
Over the past week, at least three senior Russian officials have accused the White House of failing to stick to an apparent mutual understanding reached by Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on how to resolve the conflict, or what the Kremlin sometimes refers to as the “spirit of Anchorage.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a gathering of foreign envoys earlier in the week that Trump administration officials “appear to be abandoning any claim to the role of an objective mediator and are instead pursuing a course of escalating sanctions pressure on Russia.”
In separate comments, Lavrov claimed Putin and Trump, during their meeting in Alaska, had “agreed on how to end the fighting [in Ukraine] and begin resolving all the remaining issues at the negotiating table.” He did not provide details on what exactly the two leaders had allegedly agreed upon.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has repeatedly tried to broker a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. He has claimed several times that a deal is close at hand, only for diplomatic momentum to fizzle out.
The Alaska summit remains the only face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin during these peace efforts. While Kremlin officials regularly invoke vague “understandings” from the sitdown, U.S. officials have never explicitly spelled out what, if anything, was achieved at the meeting.
The pushback from Rubio comes a day after Trump met with NATO Chief Mark Rutte at the White House. During that meeting, Trump praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, telling reporters he believed the Ukrainian leader is “doing pretty well, no matter how you look at it.”
“Look, you have to say he’s courageous, he’s got great equipment, but he’s got great men, he’s got fighters,” Trump said.
U.S.-brokered talks to end the war in Ukraine have stalled since Trump ordered attacks on Iran in late February. Russian officials have issued conflicting statements in recent weeks as to whether or not Moscow is interested in continuing peace negotiations, as Putin continues to demand that Ukraine relinquish control over the entire eastern Donbas region.
