Envoy: Russia-US dialogue on Ukraine stalled, but not halted

The dialogue between Russia and the United States has slowed but continues, Russian Ambassador to Washington Alexander Darchiev told Kommersant in an interview.

Asked whether the positive momentum from the Anchorage summit between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump had faded, Darchiev said, “By no means."

"The significance of the first personal meeting between Vladimir Putin and the U.S. President Donald Trump returning to the White House lies in the fact that both leaders negotiated as equals, seeking points of convergence in their interests,” Caliber.Az quotes Darchiev as saying.

He added that although the dialogue has “stalled,” this does not mean it has stopped. Contacts between the two countries continue at various levels, the ambassador noted.

The Trump-Putin summit, held at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, marked their first in-person meeting since 2019 and the most significant U.S.-Russia engagement since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Chosen for its symbolic proximity to Russia (across the Bering Strait) and neutrality, the venue hosted nearly three hours of talks, but no agreement on a ceasefire in war-torn Ukraine was reached.

Trump pushed for a comprehensive peace agreement, for which Putin demanded full control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. No formal agreement emerged—Trump later admitted, "We didn’t get there, but we have a very good chance"—but both sides committed to expert-level follow-ups on prisoner swaps (yielding 1,200 releases by November) and humanitarian corridors.

By Khagan Isayev