WATCH: Putin says Russia and the U.S. need to ‘turn the page’

From PBS NewsHour.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that “it’s very important” for Russia and the United States “turn the page to go back to cooperation,” as pressure grows to end the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Putin, who began a news conference with President Donald Trump after nearly three hours of talks between the two leaders in Alaska, said that “the agreement that we reached together will help bring us close to that goal and we will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine.”

The leaders didn’t share any details of their discussion or possible agreement.

The Russian president also criticized former President Joe Biden without saying his name, suggesting that if Trump had been in office when Russia invaded Ukraine in February in 2022, there would not have been a war.

“Today, when President Trump is saying that if he was the president back then, there will be no war … I’m quite sure that it would indeed be so. I can confirm that,” Putin said. “I think that, overall, me and President Trump have built a very good, business-like and trustworthy contact, and have every reason to believe that moving down this path we can come, and the sooner the better, to the end of the conflict in Ukraine.”

The summit at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, a U.S. military installation in Anchorage, Alaska, was the first time Trump and Putin have met in-person since Trump’s return to the White House earlier this year.

The two leaders did not take any questions from reporters at the news conference, but Putin suggested there may be another meeting — next time in Moscow

“I’ll get a little heat on that one, but I could see it possibly happening,” Trump replied.

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