It was billed as a “historic” presidential summit in Alaska on Friday afternoon, and the optics were as clear and overwhelming as the vast Chugach Mountains glowing above Anchorage in the summer sun.
US President Donald Trump literally praised Vladimir Putin.
A full-scale invasion of Ukraine has killed more than a million people so far and warmly greeted the injured Russian president, a US B-2 stealth bomber caught in fighter jets roa overhead.
However, President Putin seemed unprecedented in the sights. After all, this came from his much-anticipated international isolation party. A political gift given to Kremlin Strongman, who was charged with war crimes in the International Criminal Court by a US president called his friend “Vladimir.”
We then found ourselves in the windowless press room of Elmendorf Richardson near Anchorage, where the White House and Kremlin press pools were mistakenly gathering in anticipation of a joint press conference, and we were positioned with energetic, close reporters from one of the fundamentally conservative news networks that seemed to be seeking Trump’s favor.
“Trump is determined to leave Biden’s war,” the reporter unveiled during a live shot, referring to the full-scale Ukraine invasion that began in 2022 when Joe Biden was US president.
“But Ukrainians and Europeans are in the way of him,” the reporter added.
The comment points to Putin’s victory rather than returning to the top table of international diplomacy, although the Schin’s victory is not even greater. In pursuit of a swift peace agreement in Ukraine, the US president appears to have sided with Russia on key issues of the conflict.
For example, a ceasefire. Ukraine and its European supporters have long argued that stopping violence must be an important first step in peace negotiations. Trump, who had previously accepted, clearly changed his mind and posted on his true social platform, and instead on his true social platform about seeking a full peace deal. This believes that it cannot benefit from halting attack operations when it believes that the Russian army has the advantage.
Ukrainian President Volodimia Zelensky heads to Washington, adjacent to European leaders and is at the forefront of this concern and negotiations by the White House about this aspect, due to direct and urgent consultations with Trump.
It is likely that in the end neither Ukraine nor Europe willing to cross, and their leaders will be thrust back violently in Washington on demand for these territorial areas. But say no to the quick deal Trump supports, perhaps in his grasp the Nobel Peace Prize idea, Ukraine and Europe risk throwing themselves into the White House rather than the Kremlin as a real obstacle to peace.
The fact that major territorial concessions are entirely discussed is itself from yet another important victory, from the Kremlin’s point of view. Ukraine and its western supporters have embraced Donbas Kiev’s surrender, but Russia has barely mentioned the territory already captured by the brute force.
As the success or failure of peace negotiations inevitably dominates the news agenda, it is worth considering what Putin can get in the coming weeks as well as what Trump wants.
The Alaska summit in Alaska was probably a clue.
Looking at it firsthand, it was feared how Trump would normally imagine, even allowing Putin, a foreign guest in American soil, to speak first in a media joint statement. The US President quietly listened to his podium for a few minutes as Kremlin leaders delivered the impression of the day’s meeting after Alaska’s Russian and American history.
Putin, who confidently proposed that Trump be visiting Moscow, seemed to have accepted Trump in folding with a rare English statement from the Russian president. With a massive force thousands of miles away from the small concerns of Ukraine and Europe, he reintroduced him into the world from Alaska as a fellow strongman.
