Summit puts Putin back on the global stage and Trump echoes a Kremlin position

In Alaska, President Vladimir Putin walked on a red carpet, shook hands and exchanged smiles with his American counterpart. Donald Trump ended the summit praising their relationship and calling Russia “a big power ... No. 2 in the world,” albeit admitting they didn't reach a deal on ending the war in Ukraine.

By Saturday morning Moscow time, Trump appeared to have abandoned the idea of a ceasefire as a step toward peace — something he and Ukraine had pushed for months -– in favor of pursuing a full-fledged “Peace Agreement" to end the war, echoing a long-held Kremlin position. The “severe consequences” he threatened against Moscow for continuing hostilities were nowhere in sight. On Ukraine's battlefields, Russian troops slowly grinded on, with time on their side.

The hastily arranged Alaska summit “produced nothing for Mr. Trump and gave Mr. Putin most of what he was looking for,” said Laurie Bristow, a former British ambassador to Russia.

Putin’s visit to Alaska was his first to the United States in 10 years and his first to a Western country since invading Ukraine in 2022 and plunging U.S.-Russia relations to the lowest point since the Cold War. Crippling sanctions followed, along with efforts to shun Russia on the global stage.

The International Criminal Court in 2023 issued an arrest warrant for Putin on accusations of war crimes, casting a shadow on his foreign trips and contacts with other world leaders.

Trump’s return to the White House appeared to upend all that. He warmly greeted Putin, even clapping for him, on a red carpet as U.S. warplanes flew overhead as the world watched.

The overflight was both “a show of power” and a gesture of welcome from the U.S. president to the Kremlin leader, “shown off to a friend,” said retired Col. Peer de Jong, a former aide to two French presidents and author of ”Putin, Lord of War.”

Russian officials and media revelled in the images of the pomp-filled reception Putin received in Alaska, which pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda described as signalling “utmost respect.” It called the meeting a “huge diplomatic victory” for Putin, whose forces will have time to make more territorial gains.

The reception contrasted starkly with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's March visit to the Oval Office, where Trump treated him like a “representative of a rogue state,” said Roderich Kiesewetter, a member of the German parliament.

Putin has “broken out of international isolation,” returning to the world stage as one of two global leaders and “wasn’t in the least challenged” by Trump, who ignored the arrest warrant for Putin from the ICC, Bristow told The Associated Press.

Putin “came to the Alaska summit with the principal goal of stalling any pressure on Russia to end the war,” said Neil Melvin, director of international security at the London-based Royal United Services Institute. “He will consider the summit outcome as mission accomplished.”

In recent months, Trump has pressed for a ceasefire, something Ukraine and its allies supported and insisted was a prerequisite for any peace talks. The Kremlin has pushed back, however, arguing it's not interested in a temporary truce -– only in a long-term peace agreement.

Moscow’s official demands for peace so far have remained nonstarter for Kyiv: It wants Ukraine to cede four regions that Russia only partially occupies, along with the Crimean Peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014. Ukraine also must renounce its bid to join NATO and shrink its military, the Kremlin says.

After Alaska, Trump appeared to echo the Kremlin’s position on a ceasefire, posting on social media that after he spoke to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, “it was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.”

In a statement after the Trump call, the European leaders did not address whether a peace deal was preferable to a ceasefire.

The summit took place a week after a deadline Trump gave the Kremlin to stop the war or face additional sanctions on its exports of oil in the form of secondary tariffs on countries buying it.

Trump already imposed those tariffs on India, and if applied to others, Russian revenues “would probably be impacted very badly and very quickly,” said Chris Weafer, CEO of Macro-Advisory Ltd. consultancy.

In the days before Alaska, Trump also threatened unspecified “very severe consequences” if Putin does not agree to stop the war. But whether those consequences will materialize remains unclear. Asked about that in a post-summit interview with Fox News Channel, Trump said he doesn’t need “to think about that right now,” and suggested he might revisit the idea in “two weeks or three weeks or something.”

In a statement after the summit, Putin claimed the two leaders had hammered out an “understanding” on Ukraine and warned Europe not to “torpedo the nascent progress.” But Trump said “there’s no deal until there’s a deal.”

In his Fox interview, Trump insisted the onus going forward might be on Zelenskyy “to get it done,” but said there would also be some involvement from European nations.

Zelenskyy will meet Trump at the White House on Monday. Both raised the possibility of a trilateral summit with Putin, but Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said it wasn’t discussed in Alaska. The Kremlin has long maintained that Putin would only meet Zelenskyy in the final stages of peace talks.

“Trump now appears to be shifting responsibility towards Kyiv and Europe, while still keeping a role for himself,” Tatiana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Center wrote on X.

Fiona Hill, a senior adviser on Russia to Trump during his first administration, told AP that he has met his match because “Putin is a much bigger bully.”

Trump wants to be the negotiator of “a big real estate deal between Russia and Ukraine,” she said, but in his mind he can “apply real pressure” only to one side — Kyiv.

Hill said she expects Trump to tell Zelenskyy that “you’re really going to have to make a deal” with Putin because Trump wants the conflict off his plate and is not prepared to put pressure on the Russian president.

Far from the summit venue and its backdrop saying “Pursuing Peace,” Russia continued to bombard Ukraine and make incremental advances on the over 600-mile (1,000-kilometer) front.

Russia fired a ballistic missile and 85 drones overnight. Ukraine shot down or intercepted 61 drones, its air force said. Front-line areas of Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Chernihiv were attacked.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had taken control of the village of Kolodyazi in the Donetsk region, along with Vorone in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Ukraine did not comment on the claims. Russian forces are closing in on the strongholds of Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2022 but still only partially controls.

“Unless Mr. Putin is absolutely convinced that he cannot win militarily, the fighting is not going to stop," said Bristow, the former ambassador. "That’s the big takeaway from the Anchorage summit.”

Associated Press writers John Leicester in Paris and Elise Morton and Pan Pylas in London contributed.

The Kremlin Wall, the Spasskaya Tower, second left, empty Red Square and St. Basil's Cathedral are seen in an early morning prior to sunrise in Moscow, Russia, on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Russia's President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference at Joint Base Elmendorf- Richardson, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

F-35 fighter escorts a Ilyushin Il-96-300 aircraft of the Russia Special Flight Squadron carrying Russian President Vladimir Putin back to Russia after his meeting with US President Donald Trump on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin stands on the steps of the plane prior to departure at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, after meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

President Donald Trump salutes as he walks Russia's President Vladimir Putin, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy troops to quell persistent protests against the federal officers sent to Minneapolis to enforce his administration's massive immigration crackdown.

The threat comes a day after a man was shot and wounded by an immigration officer who had been attacked with a shovel and broom handle. That shooting further heightened the fear and anger that has radiated across the city since an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Renee Good in the head.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the rarely used federal law to deploy the U.S. military or federalize the National Guard for domestic law enforcement, over the objections of state governors.

“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump said in social media post.

Presidents have indeed invoked the Insurrection Act more than two dozen times, most recently in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush to end unrest in Los Angeles. In that instance, local authorities had asked for the assistance.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison responded to Trump's post by saying he would challenge any deployment in court. He's already suing to try to stop the surge by the Department of Homeland Security, which says it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the state since early December. ICE is a DHS agency.

In Minneapolis, smoke filled the streets Wednesday night near the site of the latest shooting as federal officers wearing gas masks and helmets fired tear gas into a small crowd. Protesters responded by throwing rocks and shooting fireworks.

Demonstrations have become common in Minneapolis since Good was fatally shot on Jan. 7. Agents who have yanked people from their cars and homes have been confronted by angry bystanders demanding they leave.

“This is an impossible situation that our city is presently being put in and at the same time we are trying to find a way forward to keep people safe, to protect our neighbors, to maintain order,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said.

Frey said the federal force — five times the size of the city’s 600-officer police force — has “invaded” Minneapolis, and that residents are scared and angry.

Homeland Security said in a statement that federal law enforcement officers on Wednesday stopped a driver from Venezuela who is in the U.S. illegally. The person drove off then crashed into a parked car before fleeing on foot, DHS said.

Officers caught up, then two other people arrived and the three started attacking the officer, according to DHS.

“Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired a defensive shot to defend his life,” DHS said. The confrontation took place about 4.5 miles (7.2 kilometers) from where Good was killed.

Police chief Brian O’Hara said the shot man was being treated for a non-life-threatening injury. The two others are in custody, DHS said. O’Hara's account of what happened largely echoed that of Homeland Security.

Earlier Wednesday, Gov. Tim Walz described Minnesota said what's happening in the state “defies belief.”

“Let’s be very, very clear: this long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement,” he said. “Instead, it’s a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government.”

Jonathan Ross, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who killed Good, suffered internal bleeding to his torso during the encounter, a Homeland Security official told The Associated Press.

The official spoke to AP on condition of anonymity in order to discuss Ross’ medical condition. The official did not provide details about the severity of the injuries, and the agency did not respond to questions about the bleeding, how he suffered the injury, when it was diagnosed or his medical treatment.

Good was killed after three ICE officers surrounded her SUV on a snowy street near her home. Bystander video shows one officer ordering Good to open the door and grabbing the handle. As the vehicle begins to move forward, Ross, standing in front, raises his weapon and fires at least three shots at close range. He steps back as the SUV advances and turns.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said Ross was struck by the vehicle and that Good was using her SUV as a weapon — a self-defense claim that has been criticized by Minnesota officials.

Chris Madel, an attorney for Ross, declined to comment.

Good’s family has hired the same law firm that represented George Floyd’s family in a $27 million settlement with Minneapolis. Floyd, who was Black, died after a white police officer pinned his neck to the ground 2020.

Madhani reported from Washington, D.C. Associated Press reporters Bill Barrow in Atlanta; Julie Watson in San Diego; Rebecca Santana in Washington; Ed White in Detroit and Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis contributed.

A protester holds an umbrella as sparks fly from a flash bang deployed by law enforcement on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Monica Travis shares an embrace while visiting a makeshift memorial for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A protester yells in front of law enforcement after a shooting on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Tear gas surrounds federal law enforcement officers as they leave a scene after a shooting on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Protesters shout at law enforcement officers after a shooting on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Law enforcement officers stand amid tear gas at the scene of a reported shooting Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)