Russian president Vladimir Putin sparked uproar at a tense press conference in Alaska after making what has been described as a “brutal comment” to a US reporter, just moments before entering closed-door talks with Donald Trump.
The 72-year-old Russian leader had flown directly from Moscow for the highly anticipated summit, billed as a major step toward peace negotiations in Ukraine. Sitting alongside the former US president, Putin faced a barrage of pointed questions from journalists determined to press him on whether he would commit to ending attacks on Ukrainian civilians.
One female reporter repeatedly asked: “Mr. Putin, will you agree to a ceasefire? Will you commit to not killing any more civilians? President Putin, why should President Trump trust your word now?”
Footage captured by Sky News showed a visibly irritated Putin cupping his hands around his mouth to project a response toward the crowd. His words were drowned out by the din of the press pack, but lip reader Nicola Hickling later claimed that Putin had snapped back at the journalist with the phrase: “You are ignorant.”
If correct, it was a striking moment that underscored the hostility still simmering between Putin and the Western media. Hickling also said Trump appeared uneasy during the exchange, signalling to an aide that the fiery clash was uncomfortable to watch.
However, not all observers agreed. Sky News correspondent Martha Kelner suggested that Putin had in fact been saying, “Let’s go, let’s go,” in an apparent attempt to usher the press out of the room. The conflicting interpretations highlight the fog of uncertainty that continues to surround Putin’s interactions on the world stage, where every gesture is dissected for meaning.
The dramatic press conference marked the beginning of the first face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin since 2018, held in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday 15 August. Behind the closed doors of their private meeting room, sources later suggested that “significant progress” was made in peace discussions, though no concrete agreement was announced publicly.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, who was briefed on the talks shortly afterwards, said he was cautiously optimistic but emphasised that any settlement must be “a real path toward a just peace.” Posting on X, he wrote: “The key thing is that this meeting should open up a real path toward a just peace and a substantive discussion between leaders in a trilateral format – Ukraine, the United States, and the Russian side. It is time to end the war, and the necessary steps must be taken by Russia.”
He added that Kyiv remained “ready, as always, to work as productively as possible,” but stressed that responsibility lay with Moscow to take tangible steps toward ending the war.
While the talks were underway, another controversy erupted when NPR reported that eight sensitive pages connected to the summit had been left behind in a printer at the Hotel Captain Cook, just 20 minutes from the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, where elements of the summit had taken place.
The documents included a schedule, contact numbers for government staff, and details of a planned but ultimately cancelled lunch menu for Trump and Putin. The menu had been due to feature fillet mignon, halibut Olympia, green salad, and crème brûlée for dessert. There was also a note stating that Trump intended to present Putin with a bald eagle statue as a gift.
Jon Michaels, a national security lecturer at UCLA, called the blunder a glaring example of “sloppiness and incompetence,” warning that such paperwork should never have been left in a public printer.
The White House quickly pushed back. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott dismissed the report as trivial, saying: “Instead of covering the historic steps towards peace achieved at Friday’s summit, NPR is trying to make a story out of a lunch menu. Ridiculous.”
The Alaska summit has already drawn global attention as Trump attempts to broker what he has described as “historic” peace talks, with European leaders also flying to Washington for follow-up discussions. Putin, for his part, has publicly demanded that Ukraine surrender the remaining quarter of Donetsk still under Kyiv’s control, though Zelensky has firmly ruled out ceding the region.
The incident with the journalist, however, continues to overshadow the early coverage of the summit. Whether Putin said “you are ignorant” or merely “let’s go,” the moment has been seized upon by critics who argue that it illustrates the Russian leader’s disdain for accountability. For Trump, who signalled visible discomfort during the exchange, it was an unwelcome flashpoint in an already delicate diplomatic theatre.
As the leaders prepare for further negotiations, the world is left wondering whether the Alaska meeting was the beginning of genuine progress toward ending the war in Ukraine, or simply another stage-managed encounter clouded by controversy.