WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin stood at a lectern Friday with the seal of the U.S. presidency — a surreal sight — and said he and Donald Trump reached an understanding about the Ukraine conflict. But they left a U.S. military base holding those details close to their vests.

Putin, the ultimate wild card among world leaders, did not describe the contours of that understanding he reached with the anti-war American commander in chief. But he did have a warning for the very European leaders who have for several years worried he might expand his Ukraine front to their soils.

“I would like to hope that the agreement that we’ve reached together will help us bring closer that goal and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine. We expect that Kyiv and European capitals will perceive that constructively and that they won’t throw a wrench in the works,” said Putin, who broke protocol by speaking first at a media availability after a three-hour meeting.

He also said he hopes European leaders “will not make any attempts to use some backroom dealings to conduct provocations to torpedo the nascent progress,” he said, as Trump stood like a statue, staring straight ahead.

“I believe we had a very productive meeting,” Trump said in what were, for him, very brief remarks. “There’s no deal until there’s a deal.”

Analysts and Democratic lawmakers this week predicted Trump would be unable to make much progress with Putin, a former KGB star known for managing and even changing interlocutors’ viewpoints in face-to-face meetings.

“No, I don’t think that it could be conclusive at all, because (Ukrainian) President Zelenskyy is not there. I mean, if you really want to put pressure on Russia and you want to get something done, the person that you should be talking to first is President Zelenskyy and our allies, our European allies,” House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory W. Meeks said this week. “We should be telling Russia and Putin what they must do … to stop their aggression.”

“They are the ones that are trying to take land from Ukraine, not the other way around,” the New York Democrat told CNN. “The strength should be coming from the United States, working with Ukraine and our European allies, giving the Ukrainians what they need to support themselves and to defend themselves — not allowing Russia to dictate what’s going on in this war.”

Trump also told reporters on the executive jet that he was encouraged Putin was bringing a number of Russian business tycoons in a bit of KGB 101: appealing to an interlocutor’s core instincts.

“He’s bringing a lot of business people from Russia, and that’s good, I like that. They want to do business. But we’re not doing business until the war’s over,” Trump said. “I want everyone to do well. But the war’s got to stop and the killing’s got to stop.”

Here are three takeaways from Trump and Putin’s in-person summit.

—‘It’s up to them’

Putin and Trump spoke to reporters assembled at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska for only roughly 10 minutes and did not reveal any plan to present to European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was not invited to Friday’s summit. The pair did not take questions.

“I will call up NATO in a little while. I will call up the various people that I think are appropriate, and of course, call up President Zelenskyy and tell them about today’s meeting,” Trump said at the joint media appearance.

“It’s ultimately up to them. They’re gonna have to agree,” he added of European leaders and the Ukrainian president.

Trump was more verbose on Air Force One on Friday morning.

“Vladimir Putin wanted to take all of Ukraine. If I wasn’t president, he would right now be taking all of Ukraine,” Trump told reporters shortly after taking off from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

Then came some tough talk for the man he later sat across from in Anchorage: “But he’s not going to do it.”

The U.S. president, who describes himself as a once-in-a-generation deal-maker, tried all week to manage expectations for the meeting, describing it as an attempt to set up a potential peace pact-signing session between Putin and the Ukrainian president.

“They’ll be discussed, but I’ve got to let Ukraine make that decision. And I think they’ll make a proper decision. But I’m not here to negotiate for Ukraine. I’m here to get them at a table,” Trump said Friday morning.

Air Force One had not been on the ground for five minutes when the White House announced the structure of the summit had changed: Trump and Putin would no longer meet one-on-one.

Instead, they would be joined by two aides. For Trump, that would be Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his special envoy and global fixer, Steve Witkoff.

That was a major change, literally, on the fly.

The new structure suggests there was some concern about Trump being alone with the former KGB colonel.

—‘Turn the page’

Putin declared U.S.-Russia relations restored, saying he and Trump have a “very businesslike” relationship after the countries’ relations had hit the “lowest point since the Cold War.”

“It’s very important for our countries to turn the page,” Putin said.

The reset was “long overdue,” he said, adding he and Trump over the last six months have had “very good, direct contact” and have “spoken frankly on the phone.”

The Russian leader called for “cooperation” between Washington and Moscow on “digital, high-tech and space cooperation,” as well as on “Arctic exploration” in that contentious region to which multiple parties have made claims.

Trump praised the “tremendous” Russian business leaders who tagged along with Putin.

—Cadillac style

If anyone had Putin riding in the armored U.S. presidential limousine on their summit bingo card, they could have cashed in early.

After greeting one another on the Elmendorf tarmac along a red carpet, Putin climbed aboard the massive Cadillac sedan known as The Beast and rode to the meeting site with Trump. So there was, it turned out, a one-on-one chat. That would have been unthinkable just seven months ago, when Joe Biden was still president and not speaking to Putin.

The scene conjured the theme of the car brand’s marketing ads from the late 1980s and early 1990s, when its television commercials showed scenes of drivers enjoying their luxury cars and telling viewers “the only way to travel is in Cadillac style.”

That was just part of imagery from the opening scenes that was rather confusing.

Trump applauded the Russian president, an accused war criminal whom he has criticized for killing Ukrainian civilians, as they met on the L-shaped red carpet. Then four U.S. F-22 Raptor fighters and a B-2 bomber conducted a flyover.

An interesting use of war planes at a summit to discuss possibly ending a war.

But the flyover also likely was a message, from Trump to Putin. Those are the very aircraft that would be heavily involved should war ever break out between the United States and Russia. Putin glanced up as the birds of war roared overhead.

The greeting meant Trump, the host of the meeting, literally rolled out the red carpet for Putin hours after the Russian military hit civilian targets inside Ukraine.

Images the world didn’t see, just as tellingly: Trump met with Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, as well as Alaska GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy on board Air Force One as he waited for Putin’s arrival.

The lack of a photo op came a few months after Murkowski lobbied the White House hard for her state to be exempted from parts of the president’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, his signature domestic spending and tax law.

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