On Friday, August 15, US President Donald Trump hosted a historic meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) near Anchorage, Alaska. Before they met, Trump called the engagement a “feeling out meeting” intended to gauge Putin’s interest in reaching a ceasefire agreement in Russia’s more than three-year war with Ukraine.
While Trump and Putin met in Alaska, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with European leaders to discuss their engagement strategy for the group’s impending meeting with Trump in Washington, DC, where Trump would “out-brief” them on his meeting with Putin.
On Monday, Zelenskyy first met with Trump separately followed by a larger meeting between Trump, Zelenskyy, and the European leadership contingent comprised of French President Emmanuel Macron, German President Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyden.
Before the Alaska meeting and throughout the weekend, Russian forces continued their heavy attacks against Ukraine focused on the Donetsk region where Russia currently controls about 88% of the territory. Some analysts saw Putin’s attacks prior to and after the Alaska meeting as a way for the Russian leader to strengthen his negotiating position. So far, it seems to have worked.
What Happened in Alaska?
Trump greeted Putin with a warm handshake on the JBER tarmac with a carefully laid out red carpet and a fly-by of some of the USA’s most advanced combat aircraft before transporting the Russian President to the meeting venue in Trump’s Presidential limousine – “The Beast.”
After being shunned by the West for his nation’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine, it was a somewhat surreal scene to see Putin welcomed like a partner and friend.
Advantage Putin.
The talks ended earlier than expected followed by a press conference where reporters were not invited to ask questions. Instead, Putin and Trump made comments.
Putin spoke first. After praising the "constructive atmosphere of mutual respect" and "neighbourly" talks, he offered a condensed history of Alaska's past as a Russian territory while Trump stood in silence.
After several minutes, Putin mentioned the "situation in Ukraine." Putin stated that although an unspecified "agreement" had been reached, the "root causes" of the conflict had to be eliminated before peace could be achieved.
The “root causes” reference surely triggered the folks back in Kyiz and elsewhere. This term usually describes the Russian maximalist demands, as yet agreed to by Ukraine, that Putin says prevent a ceasefire. Those demands include Russian sovereignty over the Ukrainian regions of Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – territories that Russia is either fully or partially occupying at this time.
In addition, Putin has called for Ukraine’s demilitarization, neutrality, refusal of foreign military involvement, and new elections. In short, Putin wants Zelenskyy’s complete surrender. Zelenskyy has said repeatedly that this is unacceptable.
Any hope that a ceasefire deal might move forward at JBER died with those words.
Advantage Putin.
When it was Trump's turn to speak he did not mention Ukraine or the possibility of a ceasefire once. The only reference Trump made to the conflict was when he said that "five, six, seven thousand people a week" are killed. He added that both he and Putin want to see an end to the carnage.
Surprisingly, Trump had less to say than Putin. His statement was brief and vague. "There were many, many points that we agreed on," Trump said, adding that "great progress" had been made in an "extremely productive meeting."
No details were shared, and it did not appear that any concrete steps were taken toward a resolution of the conflict. No major agreements or a trilateral meeting with President Zelensky were announced, but Putin did surprise Trump when he said, in English, “Next time (we will meet) in Moscow.”
"Oh, that's an interesting one," Trump said. "I'll get a little heat on that one, but I – I could see it possibly happening."
To Moscow's relief, Trump concluded his comments without mentioning any "severe consequences" that Trump threatened would follow if a ceasefire wasn't reached. "We didn't get there," Trump admitted.
During a post-meeting interview with Fox News, Trump said of the possible secondary tariffs against China and India, "Because of what happened today, I think I don't have to think about that now … I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don't have to think about that right now."
Advantage Putin.
What Happened in Washington?
As Russia and Ukraine continued their attacks against each other, Zelesnkyy and his team of European heavy hitters formulated their engagement plan for their Monday meeting with Trump.
On the heels of Trump’s meeting with Putin, the engagement with Zelenskyy and his European body guards took on a new angle. The word ceasefire was no longer on the marquee. Instead, the new words of the day were, as posted on social media by one of Putin’s top negotiators, “Lasting peace over temporary ceasefire.”
Putin had been saying for months that he opposes a ceasefire and would prefer a true peace agreement that is permanent. After the Alaska Summit, Trump adopted this new terminology. During the Monday meeting, Zelenskyy appears to have joined formation on this new approach.
“Together with the leaders of Finland, the United Kingdom, Italy, the European Commission, and the NATO Secretary General, we coordinated our positions ahead of the meeting with President Trump,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
“Our main goal is a reliable and lasting peace for Ukraine and for the whole of Europe,” he said.
“We understand that we shouldn’t expect Putin to voluntarily abandon aggression and new attempts at conquest. That is why pressure must work, and it must be joint pressure – from the United States and Europe, and from everyone in the world who respects the right to life and the international order.”
Zelenskyy Agrees to Meet Putin Alone
The most promising news to come out of the Monday meeting was Zelenskyy’s agreement to meet with Putin alone as a precursor to a later tri-lateral meeting that Trump has agreed to attend in order to finalize a potential peace deal.
Underpinning any potential peace deal would be a proposed security package under which Ukraine would procure $90 billion of US weapons that would be largely funded by Ukraine’s European partners and “coordinated with” the USA.
The details of this proposed security package are still slim. During the Alaska Summit, Putin apparently supported these security guarantees as part of the road to a peace deal along with discussions of “territory swaps” and Ukraine’s pursuit of NATO membership.
Putin has also long opposed Ukraine’s accession into NATO, one of the key factors that led to his nation’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, but NATO leaders have discussed a new scheme that would enable European support to defend against a future Russian invasion that doesn’t include bringing Ukraine into the Alliance. You might call it NATO Article V “light.”
“We have people waiting in another room, right now, they’re all here from Europe,” Trump said during the Monday meeting. “Biggest people in Europe. And they want to give protection. They feel very strongly about it, and we’ll help them out with that.”
“They are a first line of defense because they’re there, but we’ll help them out,” Trump said.
The plan also includes the possibility of deploying European “peacekeeping” troops to Ukraine, but Trump asserted that the US will not send troops to Ukraine under such an agreement. After initially showing tacit agreement with that plan, the Russians have apparently changed course and now oppose the deployment of European forces to Ukraine.
Even some of the probable European suppliers of these forces, specifically Germany, will face opposition at home to such a proposal. Since the end of WWII, any discussion about deploying German forces to a potential combat zone elicits emotional debate within the Bundestag.
Putin and Zelenskyy Could Meet Soon
The next step will be for Putin and Zelenskyy to meet. Budapest has been identified as the likely location given that nation’s unique position as “Russian-friendly” while still being a NATO member.
On the sidelines of the Monday meeting, Germany’s Merz said that meeting could happen within the next two weeks.
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