In Alaska, President Vladimir Putin walked on a red carpet, shakes hands and exchanged smiles with his American counterpart. Donald Trump put an end to the top to rent their relationship and to call Russia “a great power … n ° 2 in the world”, although he did not conclude an agreement on the end of the war in Ukraine.
On Saturday morning, Moscow Time, Trump seemed to have abandoned the idea of a cease -fire as not towards peace – something he and Ukraine had pushed for months – in favor of the continuation of a “peace agreement” in its own right to end the war, echoing a long -standing position of the Kremlin. The “serious consequences” which he threatened against Moscow for continuous hostilities were nowhere in sight. On the battlefields of Ukraine, the Russian troops have slowly crushed, with time on their side.
The Alaska summit has been a hurry to produce nothing for Mr. Trump and gave Mr. Putin most of what he was looking for, “said Laurie Bristow, a former British ambassador to Russia.
The summit show
Putin’s visit to Alaska was its first in the United States in 10 years and its first to a Western country since invading Ukraine in 2022 and plunging American-Russian relations with the lowest point since the Cold War. Paralyzing sanctions followed, as well as efforts to avoid Russia on the world scene.
In another blow, the International Criminal Court in 2023 issued an arrest warrant against Putin for accusations of war crimes, throwing a shadow during his trips abroad and contacts with other world leaders.
Trump’s return to the White House seemed to upset all of this. He warmly greeted Putin, even applauding for him, on a red carpet while the American war planes stole above the head while the world looked at.
Surflight was both “a demonstration of power” and a welcome gesture of the American president to the head of the Kremlin, “shown a friend,” said Colonel Retirement Peer de Jong, former assistant of two French presidents and author of “Putin, Lord of War”.
Russian officials and the media have renounced images of the “reception filled with pumps” and the “greatest respect” that Putin received in Alaska.
Putin “came out of international isolation”, returning to the world scene as one of the two world leaders and “was not the least disputed” by Trump, who ignored the arrest warrant against Putin of the ICC, Bristow told the Associated Press.
For Putin, “Mission accomplished”
Putin “came to the top of Alaska with the main objective of blocking any pressure on Russia to end the war,” said Neil Melvin, director of international security at the Royal United Services based in London. “He will consider the result of the summit as an accomplished mission.”
In recent months, Trump has been pressure for a ceasefire, which Ukraine and his allies have supported and insisted to be a prerequisite for any peace talks. However, the Kremlin has rejected, arguing that it is not interested in a temporary truce – only in a long -term peace agreement.
Until now, the official requests of Moscow have remained without starting for kyiv: he wants Ukraine to give up four regions that Russia occupies only partially, as well as the Crimean Peninsula, annexed illegally in 2014. Ukraine must also give up his candidacy to join NATO and shrink his soldiers, says Kremlin.
After Alaska, Trump seemed to echo the position of the Kremlin on a ceasefire, displaying on social networks only after having spoken to the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders: “It was determined by all means of ending the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine in war and a monk agreement, which would not have time, which would not have time.
In a statement after Trump’s call, European leaders did not explain whether a peace agreement was preferable to a cease-fire.
The Tabloid Pro-Kremlin Komsomolskaya Pravda described it as a “huge diplomatic victory” for Putin, whose forces will have time to make more territorial gains.
The summit took place a week after a deadline that Trump gave to the Kremlin to stop the war or cope with additional sanctions on its oil exports in the form of secondary prices on the countries that buy it.
Trump has already imposed these prices on India, and if it is applied to others, Russian income “would probably have very badly impacted,” said Chris Wefer, CEO of Macro-Advisory Ltd. Consultation.
In the days before Alaska, Trump also threatened “very serious consequences” not specified if Putin does not accept to stop the war. But if these consequences will materialize are not clear. Asked about it in a post-Sommet interview with Fox News Channel, Trump said he didn’t need to “think about it at the moment”, and suggested that he could review the idea in “two weeks or three weeks or something”.
Alexandra Prokopenko of Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center and former adviser to the Russian central bank, posted on X that it was “an important tactical victory for Putin” which gives Moscow “the opportunity to build alternatives and prepare”.
More pressure on Ukraine
In a statement after the summit, Putin said that the two leaders had hammered a “understanding” on Ukraine and warned Europe not to “torpedo the emerging progress”. But Trump said, “There is no agreement as long as there is no agreement.”
In his interview, Trump insisted that the burden in the future could be on Zelenskyy “to do so”, but said that there would also be an involvement of European nations.
Zelenskyy will meet Trump in the White House on Monday. The two raised the possibility of a trilateral summit with Putin, but the help of the Kremlin Yuri Ushakov said that it was not discussed in Alaska. The Kremlin has long argued that Putin will not meet Zelenskyy in the last stages of peace talks.
“Trump now seems to move responsibility to kyiv and Europe, while keeping a role for itself,” wrote Tatiana Stanovaya of Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Center on X.
Fiona Hill, principal advisor to Russia in her first administration, told AP that Trump had met her match because “Putin is a much more important tyrant”.
Trump wants to be the negotiator of a “big real estate agreement between Russia and Ukraine,” she said, but in his mind, he can “exert real pressure” only to one said-Kyiv.
Hill said she expects Trump to tell Zelenskyy that “you should really have to conclude an agreement” with Putin because Trump wants the conflict of his plate and is not ready to put pressure on the Russian president.
Far from the place of the summit and its backdrop saying “pursuing peace”, Russia has continued to bomb Ukraine and make additional progress on the front of more than 600 miles (1000 kilometers).
Russia has pulled a ballistic missile and 85 drones overnight. Ukraine has shot down or intercepted 61 drones, said its air force. The front line areas of Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Chernihiv have been attacked.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it had taken control of the village of Kolodyazi in the Donetsk region, with Vorone in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Ukraine has not commented on complaints. The Russian forces are close to the bastions of Pokrovsk and Kostiiantynivka in the Donetsk region, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2022 but that it still only partially controlled.
“Unless Mr. Putin is absolutely convinced that he cannot win militarily, the fighting will not stop,” said Bristow, the former ambassador. “This is the big point to remember from the anchorage summit.”
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The writers of the associated press John Leicester in Paris and Elise Morton and Pan Pylas in London contributed.
