‘We spoke in broken English’: Putin on what he discussed with Trump on Alaska ride

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said he and U.S. President Donald Trump exchanged only brief “small talk” in “broken English” during a 30-second ride they shared at their meeting in Alaska last month.

Putin, however, avoided giving a clear response on whether he would accept Trump’s proposal to hold peace talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had reportedly set Monday as the deadline for Moscow’s answer.

Speaking at the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation summit in Tianjin, China, Putin once again defended Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, blaming the West for provoking the war. He thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their support, noting their efforts to “facilitate the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis.”

Meanwhile, Trump delivered a pointed warning when asked about his message to Putin regarding Ukraine. “I have no message to President Putin. He knows where I stand, and he’ll make a decision one way or the other,” Trump told reporters from the Oval Office.

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“Whatever his decision is, we’ll either be happy about it or unhappy and if we’re unhappy about it, you’ll see things happen,” Trump added, in remarks that appeared to carry a veiled threat.

Despite such rhetoric, the Trump administration has so far refrained from imposing additional sanctions on Moscow, seeking instead to keep alive the prospect of a negotiated peace deal.

With inputs from agencies