Anchorage – Friday, President Trump clearly made his expectations by entering a summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska: “I will not be happy if I share without a form of ceasefire,” he said on board the Air Force One.
However, he did it, emerging from their meeting in a diplomatic retirement, approving the territorial ambitions of Russia and adopting Putin’s position which would repel the cease-fire negotiations in favor of more complete discussions.
Trump told his European counterparts that he agreed with Putin’s request that Ukraine made territorial concessions to end the conflict, a painful perspective of the Ukrainians at the heart of the war, a European official said on Saturday.
Trump also wrote on social networks that he would adopt the line of the Kremlin line on an imminent ceasefire.
“It was determined by all that the best way to put an end to the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a peace agreement, which would end the war, and not to a simple cease-fire agreement, which would not often keep,” wrote Trump on social networks. “If everything works, then we will plan a meeting with President Putin. Potentially, millions of people will be saved. ”
It was a remarkable success for Putin, who saw a Russian advantage in the battlefield and discouraged discussions on a cease-fire for months while Russian forces support their advantage along the Ukrainian front lines.
Putin was welcomed to the Tarmac of the joint base Elmendorf-Richardson with applause and smiles of the American president and offered a turn in his emblematic vehicle. After isolated years on its repeated invasions of Ukraine, faced with an indictment of the International Criminal Court on War Crimes, a red carpet was waiting for Putin on American soil.
Landage in Washington, Trump spoke with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as the secretary general of NATO and other European leaders. A follow -up meeting with Zelensky is scheduled for Washington on Monday.
But obtaining a peace agreement is an even higher bar than the ceasefire that has escaped the Trump administration in recent months, requiring complete and often prolonged negotiations which, in the meantime, will allow Russia to continue its offensive on the battlefield.
The New York Times first reported details of Trump’s conversations with European leaders.
The details of the meeting are not yet clear. In Alaska, the two men refer to “agreements” in reports to journalists. But Trump recognized the question that matters most – if Russia is ready to implement a cease -fire – remains unresolved.
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“We had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were accepted. There is very few,” said Trump. “Some are not so important. One is probably the most important, but we are very good at getting there.”
In a Fox News follow -up interview, Trump said that the meeting went well. “But we will see,” he said. “You know, you need to get an agreement.”
Trump’s inability to obtain a ceasefire from Putin surprised some analysts, who saw Putin with the military initiative, advancing offensive incursions along the front, and offering no indication that he plans to give in.
The question is whether Putin will be able to maintain Trump’s good will when war continues to grind. Only Friday, only on Friday, a few hours before the start of the summit, the Russian forces struck a civil market in the Ukrainian city of Sumy.
The Russian delegation left immediately after the availability of the press, providing no comments to the press corps on how the meetings took place behind closed doors. And after sitting with Fox, Trump quickly left Anchorage for Washington. The White House did not publish any declaration, reading or information sheet on the summit. Administration officials were silent.
“Putin will have to give Trump a kind of concession so that he is not completely embarrassed,” said Darren Kew, dean of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies of the University of San Diego, “probably a commitment to a cease -fire very quickly – one of Trump’s key requirements – followed by a promise to respond to the discussions.”
“The two serve Putin’s objectives of Trump delay and appeasement, while allowing more time for Russian victories on the battlefield,” added Kew, “because the ceases can easily be broken and peace talks can flow for years.”
In brief remarks, Putin said that the points of agreement reached Trump would probably be confronted with the opposition across Europe, including Ukraine itself, warning the continental allies not to “torpedo emerging progress” in follow-up discussions with the White House.
“I would like to hope that the agreement we have reached together will help us get closer to this objective and open the way to peace in Ukraine,” said Putin. “We expect kyiv and the European capitals to perceive it constructively and that they do not throw a key in progress.”
It was a recognition that whatever the terms agreed bilaterally between Putin and Trump’s team are almost certainly unacceptable for Ukraine, who has gone to the conflict that has lost hundreds of thousands of lives that fight the invasion of Russia since February 2022.
The Financial Times reported on Saturday that Putin demanded Ukraine ceded two oriental administrative divisions in the heart of the conflict – Donetsk and Luhansk – in exchange for Moscow agreeing to freeze the rest of the front line.
Trump told Fox that a Russian takeover of Ukrainian lands had been discussed and “agreed”, pending Ukrainian approval – an improbable perspective given by the vocal opposition of Zelensky and the provisions in the Ukrainian Constitution which prohibit the concession of the territory.
“These are points that we have negotiated, and these are points that we have largely agreed, in fact. I think we were very happy,” said Trump. “I think we are quite close to an agreement. Now look. Ukraine must accept. Maybe they will say no. “
Europe and Ukraine have argued that conceding Putin land is not enough. After invading Crimea in 2014, and managed to hold it, Putin returned for more territory in the Oriental Donbas – to launch a large -scale invasion of the country in 2022.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said this week that its war objectives remain unchanged.
“We are convinced that for the regulation to last in the long term, we must eliminate all the main roots, the main causes of this conflict,” said Putin, “to consider all the legitimate concerns of Russia and to restore a fair balance of security in Europe and in the whole world.”
“The deep causes of the conflict,” he added, “must be resolved.”
