Alaska and Washington: What happened and what’s next?

By Ben Langer

It has been a historic week around the world with two meetings of unprecedented events. To begin, the first meeting of US and Russian presidents since the beginning of war in Ukraine, and later a remarkable meeting of an unprecedented number of world leaders in the White House. A lot has happened, so let's look at what went down this week and what it means going forward.

To kick things off, last Friday saw the US and Russian delegations meet in Alaska to talk all things Ukraine and all things Russo-American. The optics of this meeting were rather in favour of the Russians, as we witnessed images of American soldiers on their knees laying down a literal red carpet for war criminal and dictator-in-chief Vladimir Putin, as well as President Trump on multiple occasions seemingly confusing Alaska with Russian territory.

It's clear that Putin got everything he wanted

Earlier this week I wrote a piece talking about what Russia, America, and Ukraine wanted from these meetings. In that article I said Russia wanted legitimisation and the image of power, with everything I just mentioned in mind, it's clear that Putin got everything he wanted; he got to sit at the table with the leader of the free world, he got to hold a press conference with such leader in which he spoke for more than double the time his American counterpart did, and he got to leave Alaska without having to agree to anything.

In my piece I said that what America wanted was a deal, Trump wants to be seen as the great peacemaker and so his goal was to leave this meeting declaring peace. It is painfully clear for Trump that he failed on this goal. In a press conference that didn’t feature press questions (because they had no content to answer with) Trump had to reluctantly state that ‘there’s no deal’. I'm sure for a man with such an ego that must have stung. For the Ukrainians the results are less black and white, they’re blackened by the legitimisation of Putin however the light came due to them escaping the fear that Trump would agree to the necessity of the Ukrainians giving up land.

Trump can continue his wholly transparent campaign for the Nobel peace prize he so clearly wants.

Early this week on On Tuesday we saw another remarkable meeting, all in one place were the leaders of: the EU, NATO, America, Ukraine, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Finland. To see such a meeting of so many figures, especially with such little preparation, is hard to believe. However it was highly anticipated after the summit in Alaska, and with so many different faces many aims were to be discussed. Firstly, America’s aims were the same in Washington as they were in Alaska, to get closer to a deal (mainly by arranging a tri-lateral meeting between Ukraine, Russia, and America), so that Trump can continue his wholly transparent campaign for the Nobel peace prize he so clearly wants.

Europe were partially there to back the Ukrainians and partially there for their own sakes considering the reality that Ukraine's security against Russia is equivalent to Europe’s security against Russia. They were there to back Ukraine and seek peace as well as there to be the primary voices and participants in discussing the ‘security guarantees’ that have been a hot discussion as of late. Ukraine went into this meeting hoping to get closer to peace, to negotiate security guarantees with the Europeans, and hopefully gain more support from America. Russia was obviously absent however did manage to be involved, as reportedly Trump left for 40 minutes during the day’s meetings to call up Vladimir Putin. What they would’ve wanted from this meeting is for very little to be agreed, the Kremlin would’ve been at home crossing their fingers hoping that leaders disagreed and that nothing concrete would come of these talks. Let’s have a brief look at the results and who will be happiest going forward.

Well, it's hard to not be cynical after this week, especially after seeing the lacklustre results of two meetings that were historic by design. To sum up, Europe did not get exactly what they wanted, they got to discuss security guarantees and many have agreed to participate, however the US seems ever more skeptical of playing a big part, and with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s recent comments stating that NATO member troops in Ukraine is unacceptable, it is unclear how these security guarantees could ever become actualised. The Americans will also be unhappy, after Zelensky justifiably rejected Putin’s offer to meet in Moscow (for safety and optics reasons) a meeting involving the two leaders is being increasingly pushed away by the Kremlin and with reports coming out in the past few days that Trump may be pulling out of peace talks for now it seems likely that the Americans may be giving up.

Ukraine will also be unhappy in the aftermath of these meetings, while security

guarantees are being discussed more concretely than ever before it is unclear if they will ever actually materialise into reality, with the Kremlin delaying talks they are no closer to peace and with the whole situation seemingly boring Trump Russia will now get away with prolonging the war without previously promised Trump tariffs. Russia will most likely be giddy with glee at the end of this week, things had the possibility of going very badly for the Russians but instead they have seemingly gained an ally in Trump and with details and disagreements slowing international talks they havemanaged to come out the other side with essentially no consequences.

Every day the Europeans and Ukrainians run a fine line with Trump and it is clear that at this moment everything relies upon his decisions, but while he is at the head of the table, he is also on his own Punch and Judy puppet stage with his strings being pulled by the Kremlin.

I have realised my tendency to be a pessimist, however in this case the current state of

affairs simply do not look ideal. The Russians are pulling ever further away from talks,

blaming “legitimacy concerns” despite Zelensky clearly being a democratically elected

leader, they also believe talks should not be held until the “core reasons” for war are

addressed, reasons that are completely detached from reality. Ukraine cannot regain the land militarily but it is clear that Russians will not be arranging talks any time soon.

It is clear that Putin does not want to “stop the killing”, as Trump keeps repeating, as Moscow continues throwing men to the front to die, losing about 1,000 Russian casualties per day. So what’s next? Well at this stage it doesn’t look like a lot, essentially a continuation of where we were before these meetings just with the recent addition of Russian legitimacy. However in a world led by Trump, complete 180s are a weekly event. Even as I’ve been writing this piece Trump has changed his position many times, the latest from him is that he will be able to tell if peace talks will happen in two weeks and if not he will have to ‘go for another tactic’, however for those who have followed the Ukrainian story since Trump’s inauguration will know that he has given ‘two weeks’ five separate times and not once has he delivered on his threats. Every day the Europeans and Ukrainians run a fine line with Trump and it is clear that at this moment everything relies upon his decisions, but while he is at the head of the table, he is also on his own Punch and Judy puppet stage with his strings being pulled by the Kremlin.

Image: Wikipedia Commons