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22 August 2025

Trump Hosts Putin In Alaska As Ukraine War Talks Stall

After a high-profile summit in Alaska and follow-up meetings in Washington, world leaders remain divided on how to end the Russia-Ukraine war and secure Ukraine’s future.

In a dramatic turn of global diplomacy, President Donald Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska on August 15, 2025, in a summit that drew the world’s attention and stoked both hope and skepticism for an end to the grinding Russia-Ukraine war. The summit, which was marked by a striking display of U.S. military hardware—including a flyover—was intended to showcase American strength and open a new chapter in negotiations between the warring parties. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking on CNBC, likened the event to “inviting your uncontrollable neighbor to your house and showing him your gun case,” underscoring the mix of hospitality and hard power on display.

But as the dust settled over Alaska’s runways, questions lingered about what—if anything—had been achieved. According to The Associated Press, the summit ended early, lasting just three and a half hours instead of the planned six, and no business deals or diplomatic breakthroughs were announced. The joint press conference was notably brief, with Putin using the occasion to flatter Trump and reminisce about the U.S.-Soviet alliance during World War II. In a pointed statement, Putin declared, “Today, we hear President Trump saying: ‘If I had been president, there would have been no war.’ I believe it would have been so. I confirm this because President Trump and I have established a generally very good, businesslike and trustworthy contact. And I have every reason to believe that, as we move along this path, we can reach – and the sooner the better – the end of the conflict in Ukraine.”

Trump’s own remarks were more circumspect. “There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them, I would say, a couple of big ones that we have not quite gotten there, but we have made some headway. So, there’s no deal until there’s a deal,” he said, making clear that significant hurdles remained. The two leaders took no questions from the press, and as they parted, Putin quipped, “Next year in Moscow.”

The Alaska summit was quickly followed by a flurry of high-level meetings in Washington. On August 18, President Trump welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the White House for an hour-and-a-half-long meeting, joined by an unprecedented coalition of European leaders, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. According to reports from the Brookings Institution, the focus shifted from ending the war outright to discussing robust security guarantees for Ukraine should the conflict draw to a close.

During and after these meetings, Trump placed two calls to Putin, floating the prospect of a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, to be followed by a trilateral summit including Trump himself. Yet the Kremlin poured cold water on the idea, insisting that any talks should start with lower-level officials and making clear that Putin, who regards Zelenskyy as an illegitimate leader, was in no rush to meet his Ukrainian counterpart. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova warned that any deployment of NATO troops in Eastern Europe could lead to “an uncontrollable escalation of the conflict with unpredictable consequences.”

The diplomatic dance has done little to slow the violence on the ground. Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities have continued unabated throughout the negotiations, with Putin demanding that Ukraine recognize the incorporation of the Donbas region—territory not fully under Russian control—into Russia. Zelenskyy, for his part, has steadfastly refused to cede any territory, reiterating Ukraine’s determination to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The human cost of the conflict remains staggering. As former Alabama State Senator and Army Colonel Phil Williams wrote in his op-ed for Rightside Radio, “Since the February 2022 invasion, over 250,000 Russian troops have been killed and 700,000 wounded; Ukraine has lost approximately 80,000 soldiers and more than 14,000 civilians.” Williams pushed back against critics demanding instant results, noting that peace negotiations for large-scale conflicts—such as the Korean War—have historically taken years, not days or hours. “If a nearly four-year conflict had been resolved in a single three-hour summit a mere six months after Trump took office, the world would not be talking about a Nobel Peace Prize ... the call would be for sainthood,” he observed.

The Trump administration has attempted a two-track approach: seeking to reset relations with Russia through the promise of lucrative trade and investment, while simultaneously pushing for an end to the war. Trump brought Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to Alaska, where Russian business leaders arrived hoping for deals in oil and rare earth minerals. Yet, as reported by Brookings, the lack of progress on the war front meant no business incentives were discussed, and the summit ended without economic agreements.

European leaders, meanwhile, have focused on securing Ukraine’s future after the war. At the White House, they pledged to provide security guarantees, including the possibility of deploying troops and offering “Article 5-type” assurances—referring to NATO’s mutual defense clause—to deter any future Russian aggression. However, the specifics remain murky. Russia has insisted that no NATO soldiers be stationed on Ukrainian soil, and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has demanded that Russia and China be included among the providers of security guarantees, a move that could give Moscow a de facto veto over Ukraine’s future alliances.

Amid these high-stakes maneuvers, the Russian economy is buckling under the weight of war. As Bessent told CNBC, “The Russian economy has 20 percent plus inflation. Right now, it is a war economy. I think more than 25 percent of the GDP [gross domestic product] is coming from the military buildup. So, you know, it’s a very imbalanced economy.” The hope, at least from the American perspective, is that economic pain will eventually force Moscow to the negotiating table in earnest.

Yet for now, the road to peace looks as uncertain as ever. Trump’s vision of himself as a peacemaker—and perhaps even a Nobel laureate—has not yielded a concrete agreement, and the war’s end remains elusive. The Europeans are left to hammer out the details of security guarantees, while Putin, confident in his military position, shows little sign of backing down. As the world watches, the stakes could hardly be higher, and the clock keeps ticking on a conflict that has already exacted a terrible toll.

As the diplomatic chess game continues, one thing is clear: meaningful progress will require patience, persistence, and a willingness to confront hard truths on all sides.