Russia-Ukraine War: Trump comes up against the difficulties of Putin diplomacy

New York (AP) – President Donald Trump Entered a Summit with Russia Vladimir Putin pressing a ceasefire agreement and threatening “serious consequences” And hard New sanctions If the chief of the Kremlin has not agreed to stop the fights in Ukraine.

Instead, Trump was the one who withdrew, abandoning his request as a ceasefire in favor of the continuation of a complete peace agreement-a Position that aligns with Putin.

After calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, Trump wrote that he stole at home Since Friday’s meeting in Alaska, he had been “determined by all the best way to end the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a peace agreement, which would end the war, and not a simple cease-fire agreement, which would not often keep.”

It was a dramatic reversal that exposed the Challenges to deal with PutinA cunning opponent, as well as the complexities of a conflict that Trump had praised several times during his campaign that he could 24 hours.

Trump’s position after the summit with Putin

Few details have emerged on what the two leaders discussed or what has been the progress they both boasted. The White House did not respond to messages asking for comments on Saturday.

While European leaders were relieved that Trump did not accept an agreement that sold the territory or otherwise favored Moscow, the summit allowed Putin to Recover your place on the world scene And may have bought Russia for more time to advance its offensive in Ukraine.

“We are back to the place where we were previously without having gone to Alaska,” said Fiona Hill, who was Trump’s main advisor to Russia to the National Security Council during his first mandate, including during her last time Met Putin to Helsinki in 2018.

In an interview, Hill argued that Trump had left the meeting in a lower position on the world scene due to his overthrow. Other leaders, she said, could now watch the American president and think that he is “not the big guy he thinks he is and certainly not the genius of the agreement”.

“Throughout the way, Trump was convinced that he had incredible persuasive forces,” she said, but he came out of the constantly meeting gave the Russian chief “treatment of the red carpet”.

Trump “turned against a rock in the form of Putin, who does not want anything outside of Ukraine,” she said.

Democrats call for consequences for Putin

At home, the Democrats expressed their alarm to what sometimes seemed A day of deferenceWith Trump applauding Putin while he was going down a red carpet during a developed ceremony welcoming him for the first time in a decade. The two went up together in presidential limousine and exchanged compliments.

Trump seemed to delight in particular in Putin echoing his often repeated assertion that Russia never invaded Ukraine if Trump had been in office instead of the Democrat Joe Biden at the time.

Before new cameras, Trump did not take advantage of the opportunity to castigate Putin to launch the greatest invasion of the soil in Europe since the Second World War or human rights violation He was accused of having committed. Instead, Putin was the one who spoke first and invited Trump to join him in Moscow afterwards.

“President Trump seems to have been played by Vladimir Putin again,” said Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, a member of the Senate Committee for Foreign Relations. “The president deployed a red carpet and warmly praised a deadly dictator on American soil and the reports indicate that he did not get anything concrete in return.”

“Enough, that’s enough,” she continued. “If President Trump will not, the Congress must do so decisively by passing overwhelming sanctions on our return in the coming weeks.”

Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island who is the member of the Senate Armed Services Committee classification, said that he was supporting diplomacy, but that “peace is done in a responsible manner”.

“Instead of giving in to Putin, the United States should join our allies from the deduction of new difficult and targeted sanctions against Russia to intensify economic pressure,” he said.

Trump presents himself as President of Peace

Trump attempted to get started as a peacemaker, taking credit for helping to dislute conflicts between India and Pakistan as well as Thailand and Cambodia. He proudly mediated A peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo and Another between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan To finish decades of fighting.

Trump expressed his eye on the Nobel Peace Prize, with many allies offering appointments.

But Trump has struggled to make progress on the two most thorny conflicts in the world: the Russian-Ukraine war and the Israel offensive in Gaza against Hamas.

The republicans and Trump allies offer little response so far

In Washington, the summit was encountered by little response from Trump’s allies. The republican legislators who spoke were largely reserved and generally called for continuous discussions and constructive actions of the Trump administration.

“President Trump brought Rwanda and the DRC in terms of the DRC, India and Pakistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska republican, written on social networks After the summit that “if the press conference offered few details on their meeting”, it was “prudently optimistic about the signals according to which a certain level of progress was made”.

Murkowski said that it “was also encouraging to hear the two presidents refer to future meetings”, but that Ukraine “must be part of any negotiated regulations and must freely accept its conditions”.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a Southern Carolina Republican and a Trump ally, offered that He was “very proud” of Trump for having had a face to face meeting and was “prudently optimistic” that war could end “long before Christmas” if a trilateral meeting between Trump, Zelenskyy and Putin is transmitted.

“I have all the confidence in the world that Donald Trump will clearly indicate for Putin this war will never start again. If this is the case, you will pay a high price,” he said on Fox News.

For some Trump allies, the very act of meeting him Putin was a success: activist and conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk called that “A great thing.”

Some see Putin’s victory and a loss of Trump

But in Europe, the summit was considered a major diplomatic coup for Putin, which is eager to get out of geopolitical isolation.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chief of the Russian Security Council, praised the summit as a breakthrough in restoring the high -level dialogue between Moscow and Washington, describing talks like “calm, without ultimatums and threats”.

Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt said the summit was “a separate victory for Putin. He did not give an inch “but was also” a separate setback for Trump. No cease-fire in sight ”.

“What the world sees is a weak and flickering America,” published Bildt on X.

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Burrows reported in London. AP Matt Brown journalists in Washington and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.