Russian officials were in jubilant mood following the conclusion of Friday’s Alaska peace summit. The talks lasted three hours and ended with no agreement on an immediate ceasefire – a key US objective prior to the meeting.
Vladimir Putin emerged from the summit having made no concessions and having seemingly staved off the threat of more US sanctions on Russia. The result was met with glee by Dmitry Medvedev – a close Putin ally and a former Russian President. In a post to his Telegram channel, he wrote: “The meeting proved that negotiations are possible without preconditions and simultaneously with the continuation of the ‘special military operation’.”
Others close to Putin also celebrated his first meeting with Trump since 2019. Foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova as Putin landed in Alaska said: “Western media are on the verge of completely losing it For three years they told everyone Russia was isolated and today they saw a beautiful red carpet laid out for the Russian president in the US.”
The talks kicked off as Russia continued its ferocious bombardment of Ukrainian cities, in a clear sign the Kremlin was in no mood for compromise.
Putin’s army also continued to consolidate major gains it has recently made in eastern Ukraine, as it closes in on Pokrovsk and other Ukrainian strongholds in the Donetsk region.
Russian advances have increased fears among Western military experts that sections of Ukraine‘s eastern front could soon collapse.
A confident Putin showed little sign of softening his maximalist demands, once again saying that Moscow wanted the “root causes” of the conflict addressed. In other words, Moscow requires Ukraine to demilitarise and to be barred from ever joining NATO.
Trump and his administration have always assumed that Putin could be enticed to stop the war through financial incentives – in a mistaken belief that everyone has their price.
However, the scheduled meeting to discuss economic investments was scrapped, as the Russian leader appeared impervious to financial persuasion.
In a more worrying sign for Ukraine and its Western allies, Trump also changed his tune on the need for an immediate ceasefire – a condition he had been pushing for months prior to the summit.
The US President seemed to side with Putin in a post to his Truth Social website on Saturday, suddenly favouring the idea of a far-reaching agreement before fighting would stop.
“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,” he wrote.
