The success of the meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska is that it was not a failure for Ukraine, says Mykola Bjeljeskov. With which, according to the analyst of the National Institute for Strategic Studies in Kyiv, the worst scenario is prevented. “Putin was unable to manipulate Trump in such a way that the US president would talk to him.”
The top between the two leaders did not yield any concrete results with regard to the war in Ukraine. Not about a ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv, not about the end of the air strikes and not about the exchange of land.
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Bjeljeskov did not awake in Kyiv where it was about 10.30 pm when the Russian and American president started in conversation. It was a quiet night in the Ukrainian capital without Russian air strikes, says the Ukrainian analyst in a video call. For Bjeljeskov the top in Alaska was not the most important thing, but what happened last Wednesday.
In the European capitals there was indignation about the mutual encounter between Trump and Putin without the presence of Ukraine in Alaska. After the date about a meeting between the two had become known, Trump spoke about exchanging land between Ukraine and Russia. On Wednesday, EU leaders, NATO-Secretary-General Mark Rutte and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky consulted with Trump to emphasize that it is not up to him and Putin to determine the future of Ukraine. “Moscow tried to present things in such a way that Ukraine could speak,” says Bjeljeskov. “But all those consultations ensured that the position of Ukraine and Europe was heard.”
The US president in Alaska then promised not to make any concessions on Putin. “Fortunately, Trump has kept to that. You never know that with him. He did not ignore Europe and did not do what Putin expected from him. Fortunately we have this check. We didn’t have that for Wednesday.”
Support from Europe
Bjeljeskov praises his country again ‘happy’, referring to the support of Europe, which has his fate associated with Ukraine. With the Russian invasion in Ukraine three years ago, the EU sees European security in danger. What Ukraine helps, says Bjeljeskov, are the “successful” NATO summit in The Hague and the agreements made in recent months about the purchase by European countries of American weapons for Ukraine. “Thanks to the use of Rutte and other leaders. The relationship with Europe is therefore much more important for Trump than with Russia.”
The win for Putin is mainly in the generous reception he received on an American military base at Anchorage, a city in Alaska. The Russian president was visibly delighted. He was received with a red carpet and flying aircraft and rode with Trump in ‘The Beast’, the US Presidential Limousine, exceptionally for a non-won-free foreign leader.
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Without an interpreter they were in the car one-on-one. Putin shows that the West did not succeed in insulating him. Although the Russian leader Trump did not get that far to illuminate the sanctions.
“The top is an important turning point between the two countries,” wrote Leonid Sloetski, head of the Buitlandse Affairs Committee in the Russian Parliament, then on Telegram. “Anchorage enters history like a transition to a new phase in the Russian-American relations.”
It is a Russian desire to distribute the NATO block and play the US and Europe apart. Where Moscow sees the encounter in Anchorage as an improvement in the relationship between Washington and Moscow, Putin considers Europe as an annoying stand-in-the-way to peace with Ukraine, as long as “Kyiv and European capitals do not try to raise obstacles or disturbing the starting progress”.
Protesters with a large Ukrainian flag in Anchorage during the meeting of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Definitive peace agreement
Extra pressure on Russia, such as sanction reinforcement, was again in the American side. Trump sticks to a dialogue. In an interview with TV channel Fox News, he alluded on Saturday at a meeting between him, Putin and Zensky. Returning from Anchorage, he again spoke with EU leaders and the Ukrainian president.
In response to the telephone conversation with Trump, Zelensky wrote on X: “We also discussed the positive American signals about participation in safety guarantees for Ukraine.” In a statement, EU leaders welcome that Trump is willing to give those security guarantees. Zensky said to strive for a definitive peace agreement with Russia. After the top, Trump also talked to Putin about a peace agreement instead of a ceasefire. On Monday the two meet in Washington.
As an analyst, Bjeljeskov sees that negotiations must be made. That is the reality of the battlefield, where Russia occupied Ukrainian territory. But the political differences between Kyiv and Moscow are too large and incompatible to come together. Putin talked again in Alaska about the removal of the ‘root causes’ of the Russian invasion. This does not mean NATO membership for Ukraine, ‘Denazification’ and demilitarization. He also claims the Ukrainian provinces Loehansk, Donetsk, Zaporizja and Herson, including the parts that Russia is currently not occupied. Such requirements are non -tracking for Ukraine. Kyiv holds on to the Ukrainian sovereignty.
“Putin sees Trumps inability to put him under pressure. Heavyer sanctions and large -scale assistance to Ukraine are not forthcoming. That is why Russian president is holding on to the war. He is determined to destroy Ukraine,” says Bjeljeskov who states that the battlefield together with diplomacy determines the outcome of the war. “There is no recipe for how you unite the Ukrainian and Russian political position. We are fooling ourselves by thinking that diplomatic conversations as in Alaska yield that.”
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