EditNo hopeful tidings from the Alaska summit
Adding insult to injury, Trump and Putin might agree to a follow-up meeting hosted by Hungary’s Viktor Orbán
The forthcoming Alaska summit, where President Donald Trump will host Vladimir Putin, is unlikely to yield positive outcomes and may instead signal a troubling shift in global dynamics.
Putin has already secured a symbolic victory, as the mere photo opportunity marks his return to the international stage three and a half years after launching Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
Compounding concerns, the summit appears to be convened on Putin’s terms, notably excluding Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom Putin openly disdains, while Russian assaults on Ukraine are expected to persist unabated.
Without Zelenskyy’s presence, the meeting is improbable to halt the war or produce a durable agreement. Any potential accord risks being heavily skewed: Russia’s promises, such as a ceasefire, are likely reversible, whereas U.S. concessions – potentially recognizing Russian control over occupied Ukrainian territories – would grant Putin a historic triumph.
Putin’s diplomatic gambit seeks to secure what he failed to achieve militarily: complete control over Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, including Odesa and Ukraine’s remaining Black Sea coast – a blatant land grab, not a mutual “exchange of territories”.
Putin may easily entice Trump with lucrative business prospects in Russia or the prospect of lifting U.S. sanctions, allowing Trump to tout the deal as a triumph rivaling the purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire by the United States for a sum of $7.2 million in 1867.
The summit could culminate in an ultimatum to Ukraine: accept a peace deal dictated by Trump and Putin, or lose U.S. support entirely. For Zelenskyy, publicly rejecting such an agreement would be a near-impossible task.
The European Union finds itself sidelined, its geopolitical aspirations dwarfed by its inability to influence the summit’s outcome or safeguard Ukraine’s interests, which are inextricably linked to its own.
The EU’s leverage is reduced to diplomatic overtures, leaving it powerless to counter the unfolding scenario.
Adding insult to injury, Trump and Putin might agree to a follow-up meeting hosted by Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, whose disdain for EU leadership would likely exclude European voices from the table.
Such a realignment, with Russia regaining the U.S. as a partner against a weakened Europe, would bolster Moscow’s narrative that Ukraine and the EU embody fascism – a narrative further emboldened by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s shift away from Germany’s traditional pacifism.
While this paints a grim picture, it reflects only the author’s perspective. Perhaps Trump will defy expectations, securing genuine peace and even earning a Nobel Prize. As the Russian saying goes, Поживём-увидим – “We’ll live and see.”
Caption: Traditional Russian wooden Matryoshka dolls depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump (L) are displayed for sale at a souvenir shop in Moscow, Russia, 19 May 2025. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
Updated: August 11, 2025 - 09:00
