President Trump releases photo sent by Putin showing the two standing side by side ahead of summit in Alaska.
At an event at the White House on August 22, US President Donald Trump released to the press a photo of himself and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin standing on a podium at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, before the two leaders attended the summit on August 15.
“I just got a picture from someone who really wanted to be there. He has a lot of respect for me and our country, just not for other people,” Trump said as he held up the photo and said he would sign it.
The US president said it was a “beautiful picture” of his Russian counterpart. “I look fine in the picture, but he looks great. It’s great that it was sent to me,” he added.
The US president is pushing for peace efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine. After meeting with his counterpart Putin in Alaska, Mr. Trump also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and several European leaders at the White House.
After the discussions, Mr. Trump announced that he was arranging a meeting between Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelensky. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later said Mr. Putin had promised to meet his Ukrainian counterpart in the coming weeks. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on August 22 that there were no plans for the meeting.