Russian politicians hail Alaska summit as victory for Moscow
Lucy Papachristou
Russian President Vladimir Putin walks after a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S., August 15, 2025. Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via REUTERS
In the early hours of Saturday morning following a
summit in Alaska
between the leaders of Russia and the United States, senior politicians in Moscow were quick to trumpet the meeting as a win for Russia and its narrative of the
war in Ukraine
.
'The meeting in Alaska confirmed Russia's desire for peace, long-term and fair,' said Andrei Klishas, a senior lawmaker from President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party.
He portrayed the summit as a coup for Russia and a loss for Ukraine and its European allies, who have been pushing for an unconditional ceasefire.
'The tasks of the SMO will be accomplished either by military or diplomatic means,' Klishas wrote, using the acronym for Special Military Operation, the Kremlin's term for the war.
'A new architecture for European and international security is on the agenda, and everyone must accept it.'
The highly-anticipated summit on Friday in Anchorage yielded no agreement to resolve or pause the conflict, now in its fourth year, although both
Putin
and
U.S. President Donald Trump
described the talks as productive.
The two men met for nearly three hours before giving a brief media appearance and boarding separate planes home.
Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president known for his hawkish views, said the summit proved that it was possible to hold talks without conditions – as Moscow has insisted – while the fighting in Ukraine rages on.
Russia's flagship Channel One morning state news bulletin on Saturday stressed the pageantry around the summit, its global profile, and the warm welcome extended to Putin, who had been ostracized by Western leaders since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
'The Red carpet, handshakes and footage and photographs that are in all global publications and TV channels,' it said, saying it was the first time that Trump had met a visiting leader off their plane at the airport.
Its correspondent in Alaska said the two leaders had obviously agreed about a lot of things, but did not say what those things were.
'The very fact of the meeting in Alaska, its tone, and its outcome represent a significant and joint success for both presidents, each of whom made a tremendous personal contribution to achieving the best possible result at this time,' Konstantin Kosachyov, a chair of the foreign affairs committee of Russia's upper house of parliament, wrote on Telegram.
Other commentators struck a sourer tone.
Writing for War Gonzo, a pro-war Telegram channel with over 800,000 subscribers, one blogger praised Putin's remarks as 'quite strong', but added that the meeting had delivered no visible outcomes beyond the mere fact that it took place.
'What will happen next? If our strikes on Ukrainian regime targets resume, Trump will have a reason to declare once again that 'Putin is talking nonsense' and to impose sanctions and interrupt the negotiation process that has begun,' wrote the blogger, Old Miner.
'On the other hand, should Russia stop its special military operation because of endless talks?'
US Elections
Donald Trump
said on Friday his Russian counterpart
Vladimir Putin
agrees with him that letting voters send in ballots by mail puts honest elections at risk.
'Vladimir Putin, smart guy, said you can't have an honest election with mail-in voting,' Trump told Fox News Channel's 'Hannity' after a nearly
three-hour meeting
between the leaders in Alaska. 'He said there's not a country in the world that uses it now.
Reuters
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Nahar Net
7 hours ago
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Trump-Putin summit: What we know
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Ya Libnan
8 hours ago
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Trump drops ceasefire demand, adopts Putin's position on Ukraine
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Ya Libnan
9 hours ago
- Ya Libnan
For Ukraine the Trump- Putin Alaska summit was a complete disappointment
Many Ukrainians were angry to see the US rolling out a red carpet for Putin A red carpet for Vladimir Putin and no results for Ukraine. The Alaska summit, which many had pinned high hopes on, turned out to be a complete disappointment from the perspective of many Ukrainians. During Saturday night, many Ukrainians stayed up and anxiously waited for news from the Alaska summit between US President Donald Trump and Russia's head of state Vladimir Putin . For some, there was hope the talks could lead to some sort of end of Russia's war against Ukraine . Many Ukrainians though feared the price for this might be territorial concessions Kyiv would be pressured into making. But it soon became clear that the summit in Alaska had brought no fundamental changes . 'There were no concrete results for Ukraine,' Oleksandr Kraiev of the Ukrainian Prism think tank told DW. 'Thank God nothing was signed and no radical decisions were made,' the North America expert said. 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And for Trump, it was a moment where he wanted to demonstrate strength. He was walking next to Putin while a US bomber flew above them, the same bomber that recently attacked Iran. This was a signal to everyone not to forget who the most important country in the world is,' Us told DW. As if to confirm this, Dmitry Medvedev, chairman of Russia's Security Council, said after the Alaska summit that a 'full-fledged mechanism for meetings' between Russia and the US at the highest level had been restored. 'Important: The meeting proved that negotiations without preconditions and simultaneously with the continuation of the Special Military Operation are possible. Both sides directly put the responsibility for future negotiation results on Kyiv and Europe ,' Medvedev wrote on social networks. The term Special Military Operation is how Russia refers to its war against Ukraine. Despite international pressure, Russia continues its war on Ukraine Ivan Us thinks that the summit did not get Ukraine closer to peace. Instead, it intensified the chaos, as the US and Russia are making contradictory statements about continuing possible trilateral dialogue involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy . For example, Moscow says that Trump and Putin did not discuss a trilateral summit with Zelensky, while Washington says the opposite. Zelenskyy himself spoke of receiving an invitation to a trilateral meeting. 'We support President Trump's proposal for a trilateral meeting between Ukraine, the US, and Russia. Ukraine emphasizes: Important issues can be discussed at the level of heads of state, and a trilateral format is suitable for this,' he wrote on social media after a phone call with Donald Trump. Zelenskyy shared that he would meet with Donald Trump in Washington on August 18. 'Ukraine confirms once again that it is ready to work toward peace as productively as possible. President Trump informed me about his meeting with the Russian president and about the key points of the discussion. It is important that US power influences the development of the situation,' the Ukrainian president said. There are fears in Ukraine that Zelenskyy's trip to Washington could result in new pressure from the US on Ukraine. 'Any 'no' from the Ukrainian side could be portrayed as [a] lack of willingness to end the war. Trump essentially admitted that it's about an 'exchange of territories for security guarantees,' and he confirmed that agreement was reached on certain points and spoke of a 'chance for success,'' Iryna Herashchenko, Ukrainian MP and co-chair of the opposition party 'European Solidarity,' wrote on social media. She believes that such formulations allow Moscow to present this as legitimization of its demands. 'Putin repeated during the brief briefing once again that the actual causes of the conflict must be eliminated. This means that Moscow will not change its goals – because the existence of an independent Ukraine is seen as the actual cause,' warns Herashchenko. Ukrainian political scientist Vadym Denisenko, however, believes that Russia's idea of 'doing business with the US in exchange for Ukrainian territory' didn't work. Putin managed to gain time, though. 'At Alaska, they agreed to negotiate,' Denisenko wrote on social media. Nevertheless, he argues that Putin 'lost what was most important: his maneuverability. He drastically restricted his scope for action and is actually rapidly falling into China's arms.' Denisenko believes that if no results regarding the end of the war are achieved within two months, the issue will become part of Chinese-American negotiations. 'In other words: A new window for negotiations will open earliest at the end of the year, realistically only in spring 2026,' he predicted. DW
