Trump-Putin Alaska Summit: How It Shaped a Shift in US Ukraine Policy

The Alaska Summit: A Turning Point in US-Russia Relations Regarding Ukraine

Then-US President Donald Trump arrived in Alaska hoping to reach an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the conflict in Ukraine. However, his efforts were met with a blunt refusal from Putin, who resorted to delivering a lengthy historical lecture, stalling negotiations and changing the course of relations between the two countries.

Despite a subsequent phone call and an agreement to meet in Budapest, the controversial Anchorage summit left its mark on the relationship between the two leaders. Based on interviews with Western and Ukrainian officials and diplomats, as well as sources close to the Kremlin, this analysis reveals the details of what happened behind closed doors in Alaska.

Behind the Scenes of the Alaska Summit: A Warm Welcome and a Sudden Shift

Putin greeted Trump with a broad smile in Alaska, but this warm welcome quickly evaporated once the closed meeting began. Putin rejected an American offer to lift sanctions in exchange for a ceasefire, insisting that the only solution was Ukraine's surrender and concession of more territory in Donbas. He then launched into a lengthy discourse on Russian and Ukrainian history, citing historical figures to support his claim that Ukraine and Russia are one nation.

This angered Trump, who raised his voice and threatened to withdraw from the talks. In the end, Trump cut the meeting short and canceled the planned luncheon to discuss economic relations and cooperation between the two countries.

Reactions and Consequences of the Summit

While Trump described the meeting as a "great and successful day", Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders rushed to the White House to persuade Trump not to abandon Ukraine. The summit proved to be a turning point, leading to a deterioration in relations between Trump and Putin and a shift in US policy towards supporting Ukraine.

As Zelensky prepared to meet with Trump, he entered the White House hoping for economic agreements and additional support, after Trump had previously rebuked him and described him as "playing with fire and gambling with World War III".

An Incomplete Shift in Trump's Position

As a result of Trump's growing impatience with Putin, his administration has allowed European allies to buy weapons for Ukraine from US stockpiles, help guide strikes against Russian energy infrastructure, and threaten Putin with selling long-range missiles to Kyiv capable of reaching Moscow.

Washington has also imposed a 25% tariff on goods imported from India in response to its continued purchase of Russian oil, and urged other countries to take similar action.

However, this shift is still incomplete, and Washington has not fulfilled its threat to impose sanctions on Russian energy exports. But the United States is moving in one direction: forcing Putin back to the negotiating table on Ukraine.

Misunderstanding or Miscalculations?

Trump's efforts to reach an agreement faltered in the spring, when senior Russian officials stated that Putin was not interested in discussing the peace plan drawn up by the United States, Ukraine, and Europe. Another meeting scheduled for May was canceled.

But in early August, US envoy Vitkov traveled to Moscow in an attempt to relaunch peace talks. After three hours of talks between Vitkov and Putin in the Kremlin, US officials informed their allies that an agreement had suddenly become possible. They said that Putin seemed more flexible on territorial issues than he had been in his previous meetings with Vitkov. They also suspected that Putin was concerned about US sanctions on Indian imports of Russian oil. They decided that Putin and Trump should meet.

According to two sources familiar with the matter, Trump said in Alaska that the United States was willing to recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and push Ukraine to withdraw from some forward positions in the eastern Donbas region if Russia stopped fighting.

However, this initial agreement was based on a misunderstanding. Russia's territorial "concessions," as presented by Vitkov, were actually just an acceptance of freezing the front lines in some areas that it could not seize by force - while still demanding that Ukraine hand over the entire Donbas region. "He completely misunderstood everything Putin said about what would be discussed at the summit," said one person familiar with the talks. White House officials denied that Vitkov had misinterpreted the Russian position.

The Russian leader insisted that no agreement could be reached if it did not address what he called the "roots" of the conflict, namely regime change in Kyiv, a halt to NATO expansion, and a halt to the West's supply of weapons to Ukraine.

For Putin, Trump's proposal was completely unacceptable. What he wanted was Ukraine's surrender. Given concerns about reaching an agreement without Zelensky's knowledge, and unaware of Putin's hardline stance in Alaska, European allies feared that Trump had decisively sided with the Russian side. Trump backed down from the threat of imposing harsh new sanctions on Moscow and appeared to support Putin's demands for a permanent solution rather than the immediate ceasefire he had promised.

But this meeting greatly eased European concerns that Trump had agreed to put Ukraine at Putin's mercy. It also gave Russia a reason to blame Ukraine and Europe for the lack of progress in Alaska.

Is Ukraine Now More Hopeful for US Support?

Zelensky arrived at the White House on Friday more optimistic than ever since Trump returned to office in January, believing that the United States now stands by his side.

US intelligence assistance and discussions about arming Ukraine with Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles are encouraging signs for Kyiv and its European allies, indicating that Trump is finally willing to put pressure on Russia, albeit directly and through them.

The United States is pressing European countries to "seize or otherwise use" frozen Russian sovereign assets to arm Ukraine. The only thing the White House has not done is fulfill Trump's repeated threat to increase sanctions on Russia. US and European officials say Trump believes doing so would undermine any role he might play in mediating with Putin.

Meanwhile, Putin has repeatedly praised Trump in his public appearances from the Alaska summit until their call this week. In a lengthy foreign policy discussion earlier this month, the Russian leader expressed his condolences for the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and said that the conflict in Ukraine would never have happened if Trump had been president when the conflict began in 2022.

Last week, Putin said that Trump should have received this year's Nobel Peace Prize - which earned him public thanks, which the US president has been openly seeking.

In their call on Thursday, flattery continued. Trump said that Putin congratulated him on a "great achievement of peace in the Middle East", a "dream for centuries". When the two meet in Budapest, there is no guarantee that the US president will not be swayed. "Dealing with Trump is like a constant tug-of-war," said a senior European official involved in negotiations with the White House on Ukraine. "You talk to him and help him realize that Putin is a problem, then you walk away and he goes back to Putin's position. So you have to talk to him again. That's how it is, over and over again."

But the Russian president seems to have calculated that as long as he has the upper hand on the battlefield, he does not need to make any concessions - even if his country's wartime economy seems to be showing bad signs. "It's not a matter of money for Putin. This is his political legacy - he wants to go down in history as the greatest Russian ruler since Peter the Great," said another senior European official. "He thought he could give Trump a victory, but he decided not to."