The meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents — Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin — held on August 15 in the state of Alaska, was watched by the entire globe: countries opposed to the invasion of Ukraine — with anxiety and apprehension, and countries sympathetic to and friendly with Russia — with satisfaction.
As reported earlier, the nearly three-hour talks with the participation of the two state leaders ended without practical results. Not even a temporary agreement was reached regarding a ceasefire on the territory of Ukraine.
At the press conference after the negotiations, the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, said that to stop the clash in Ukraine it is “necessary to eliminate the primary factors of the contradiction.” It is no secret that Moscow has been putting forward demands to Kyiv that are difficult to accept.
President Donald Trump evaluated the talks with his Russian counterpart positively. He even boasted in an interview with Fox News that he would give the meeting a “ten” on a ten-point scale. However, many analysts write that the meeting in Alaska, while yielding no practical outcome, brought Putin significant image points.
Trump personally met Putin at the airport on a pathway laid with a red carpet and, squeezing his hand, expressed respect. Then he invited Putin into his limousine. In this way, the two leaders, like close interlocutors, headed to the negotiation hall in the U.S. President’s official vehicle.
It is known that the International Criminal Court in 2023 issued an arrest warrant for Putin on charges of war crimes. In general, due to aggressive actions against Ukraine, the Russian leader has in recent years been almost isolated by the international community. Accordingly, Putin’s lavish reception in the U.S. was not well received by European capitals and by Kyiv.
As the BBC writes, although no agreement on a ceasefire was reached at the meeting in Alaska, Putin’s main aim was realized: Trump warmly welcomed Putin, who had not set foot on U.S. soil since 2015, and returned him to the international political stage. Sky News holds a similar position.
“Putin was received on American soil as an equal partner to a great power. Red carpet, handshakes, an air parade… Only a country like North Korea could receive a person accused of war crimes in such a way. Trump rewarded the President of Russia not with sanctions but with a state visit. A solitary leader turned into an equal partner,” wrote Sky News correspondent Ivor Bennett.
According to Daniel Fried, a veteran of U.S. diplomacy who served 40 years in the State Department system, Putin did not yield to Trump on any issue in the negotiations.
“Trump sought to present himself in a superior position, but he failed to achieve any result. The idea (to hold this summit) emerged due to (U.S. President’s special envoy Steve) Witkoff’s mistaken report that the Kremlin was ready for a deal (to stop the war in Ukraine). Either Putin deliberately led everyone to a confusing conclusion, or Witkoff misunderstood him. But it was clear that Russia was not ready for an agreement,” emphasizes Daniel Fried.
Former Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. Valeriy Chaly also called the showing of such high respect to a person “accused of killing civilians” a “despicable act.”
Trump had been stating that, if a peace agreement were not signed, he would impose crushing sanctions against Russia. But after the meeting he said that for now he would not impose new financial restrictions on Moscow and its trading partners. In experts’ view, this also indicates that Putin had the upper hand in the negotiations.
Neither during the conversation nor at the press conference did Trump utter a single word about Ukraine suffering oppression, including that civilians are being killed in the country as a result of Russia’s bombings. This is also being interpreted as a gain for the Kremlin.
Wolfgang Ischinger, former head of the Munich Security Conference on international security and former German ambassador to the U.S. and the U.K., also considers that in Alaska “the ball remained with Putin.”
“There is no real result. The score is in Putin’s favor: 1–0. There are no new sanctions against Russia. There is no benefit for Ukraine either. Europe is dispirited,” says Wolfgang Ischinger.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chair of the European Parliament’s defense committee, interpreted the warm attitude shown by the White House to the Russian leader, who is “starting a war and occupying another state’s territory,” as a “compass malfunction.”
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky’s meeting with Trump in Washington on February 28 of this year ended with an unprecedented diplomatic scandal. Because of a quarrel before media representatives, the planned negotiations and the agreement-signing ceremony were canceled; the Trump administration demanded that the Ukrainian delegation immediately leave the White House, and the angry host did not even come out to see the guest off.
Recalling that incident, NBC News noted that this time the owner of the White House showed a completely different level of respect to his Russian counterpart.
Hillary Clinton, Trump’s opponent in the 2016 presidential election, called on him not to concede to Russia regarding Ukraine.
“Trump must understand that today he will meet with a person who is not a friend to the U.S. He is meeting with an adversary who seeks to weaken America and dismantle the Western coalition,” warned H. Clinton.
At the end of Friday’s conversation, Putin invited Trump to meet in Moscow next time. The Axios outlet drew attention to the fact that Putin made this proposal in English. As Axios reminds, the Kremlin leader does not always speak English.
For information: after the meeting with Putin, Trump held phone conversations with Zelensky and European leaders. According to him, now achieving an agreement on Ukraine depends more on Zelensky and the European capitals.
In his post tonight, the U.S. President wrote that it is important not to achieve a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine but to stop the war completely.
Leaders of the European Union and the United Kingdom, in statements given after the meeting in Alaska, indicated the necessity of holding a trilateral summit with Zelensky’s participation. It is emphasized that if the bloodshed in Ukraine does not stop, the EU and London will continue to pressure Moscow, and sanctions and economic restrictions will be further strengthened.
According to the latest reports distributed by CNN, Trump is discussing with European leaders the possibility of providing Ukraine with security guarantees similar to NATO’s Article 5. Even in the event that a peace agreement is signed with Russia, certain security guarantees may be offered to Kyiv by the U.S. and Europe. For now, the format and conditions of these guarantees are not clear.
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