US President Donald Trump with Russian President Vladimir Putin with Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, US (file photo) | Photocredit: Kevin Lamarque
When Air Force One picked up his wheels from a joint base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, US President Donald Trump went home with a conviction that his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin was not a moist Squib.
There is perhaps a sense of disappointment that a deal of even a kind of cease -the fires had not been reached, but perhaps a framework of one was discussed with the Russian leader who remarked that a “concept” had been achieved before he started warning Europe not to “torpedo about the budding progress”.
But there was at least one big collection meal of the top: Putin said that the war in Ukraine would not have started if Trump had been in office in 2022. Or as Trump later said: “This is not my war. This is the war of Biden. Biden ruined this”.
“We had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed,” Trump said that addition is: “One is probably the most important, but we have a very good chance of coming.”
Ball in Zenskiy, Europe’s Court
At the height of the 2024 political season in the US, Trump made it seem as if the conflict in Ukraine would end on day one of his stint on the Oval Office. But about eight months later, everything he could say in Alaska was “I think we are pretty close to a deal”, making it now on the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zensky and Europe, to sew it all.
“Now it is really up to President Zenskiy to get it done. And I would also say the European countries, they have to get involved a bit. But it is up to President Zenskiy … and if they want, I will be at that next meeting,” Trump Sean Hannity of Fox News said after his meeting with Putin in Alaska.
Despite the optics and atmosphere the bottomline in the words of Trump “There is no deal until there is a deal”; Still his meeting with Putin “Ten out of ten”. Trump is perhaps a businessman who is known for closing deals, but he also knows the political environments of America and Europe – calls the top a failure in the absence of an agreement and regards it as a “sold out” as a deal was reached without the Ukrainian participation.
Along the line, more light will be shed why the one-on-one between Trump and Putin became a three-on-three with the US President with Minister of Foreign Affairs Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff; And President Putin with his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and adviser Yuri Ushakov of foreign policy.
One speculation is that there might be people on the American side who did not want their president to be alone with the cunning former KGB chef who saw many American leaders, both while they served the Russian federation and the former Soviet Union.
Meeting in the ‘Beast’
But for a while no one will know what actually happened during the 10-minute limousine ride that Putin had in the “beast” with Trump. There are a number of things that the two leaders could have talked about because they don’t have to worry about the presence of interpreters: the modalities of an immediate truce that lead to a permanent solution; status of areas; And relationships between Ukraine and Europe with specific reference to NATO.
The private moments that leaders share are always considered critical. Leaders such as the president of France, Emmanuel Macron and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, had also been alone with Trump in the “Beast”, but Putin is different. In the sights of many US president, he was seen as a ruthless autocrat who is responsible for the start of many conflicts and would also interfere with American domestic politics.
The writer is a senior journalist who has reported from Washington DC about North America and the United Nations.
Published on August 17, 2025
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