'Wariness' in Ukraine ahead of Trump-Putin talks in Alaska
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France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
In high-stakes summit, Trump, not Putin, budges
In the end, it looks like it was Trump, not Putin, who budged. Putin, visibly delighted as he stepped foot in the West for the first time since ordering the 2022 invasion, made no apparent concession at the talks at an Alaska air base. In a brief joint media appearance with Trump, who unusually took no questions, Putin again spoke of addressing the "root causes" of the Ukraine war and warned Kyiv and Europeans against disrupting "emerging progress" with the United States, the top defender of Ukraine under Trump's predecessor Joe Biden. Trump, who bills himself as a master negotiator, acknowledged there was "no deal" but said there were "very few" areas of disagreement, although he was vague on what they were. But posting hours later on his Truth Social account, Trump said he wanted Russia and Ukraine to "go directly to a peace agreement, which would end the war" and not a ceasefire. Trump's own administration had been pushing a ceasefire for months, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signing on after intense pressure from Trump. Putin had repeatedly rejected truce offers and kept up attacks on Ukraine, seeking to maximize battlefield advantage. Putin again woos Trump Trump had vowed to be firm with Putin after wide criticism of the US president's cowed appearance before him at a 2018 summit in Helsinki. But Putin again found ways to flatter and trigger Trump, who in his second term constantly speaks unprompted about his many grievances. Putin told Trump before the cameras that there would have been no war -- which Putin himself launched -- if Trump were president in 2022 rather than Biden, a frequent Trump talking point. Trump bemoaned the effect on ties with Putin of what he again called the "hoax" of the findings by US intelligence that Russia meddled in the 2016 election to help him. In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity after the summit, Trump said that "one of the most interesting things" Putin told him was about... the US voting system. Trump said approvingly that Putin -- who has held power in Russia since 2000 and was declared the winner of elections last year with 88 percent of the vote -- told him of the risks of mail-in ballots and said of Trump's 2020 loss to Biden, "You won that election by so much." US election authorities and experts have found no evidence of wide-scale fraud from mail-in ballots in the 2020 election, which Trump, uniquely in US history, refused to concede. 'Shameful' or wait and see? Trump's Democratic rivals voiced outrage that the summit secured no breakthrough and said it only served to normalize Putin, who faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court. "By quite literally rolling out the red carpet, Trump has legitimized Russia's aggression and whitewashed Putin's war crimes. It's shameful," said Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Experts said it was too early to write off the summit completely, as much is not known about what was discussed behind closed doors. Trump will meet Zelensky on Monday at the White House. Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, which backs US restraint, said that Trump's critics have been proven wrong in saying he would "give Ukraine to Putin or force Kyiv to accept surrender." "His focus has been and remains getting Putin to the negotiating table. Mr. Trump deserves credit rather than condemnation for his efforts so far," she said. But Kristine Berzina, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, said an initial read was that "Putin scored a victory by showing up, and Trump's limited words and tense demeanor left Putin to control the narrative." "For a man so attached to showmanship, Trump unusually allowed Putin to be the star of what should have been the Trump show," she said.
France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
Ukraine's Zelensky to meet Trump on Monday after Alaska summit fails to secure ceasefire
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will head to Washington on Monday to discuss "ending the killing and the war" with US President Donald Trump, he announced Saturday, a few hours after a US-Russia summit in Alaska ended without an agreement to stop the fighting in Ukraine. Trump confirmed the White House meeting and said that 'if all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin'. In a reversal only few hours after meeting his Russian counterpart, Trump said an overall peace agreement, and not a ceasefire, was the best way to end the war. That statement echoed Putin's view that Russia is not interested in a temporary truce, and instead is seeking a long-term settlement that takes Moscow's interests into account. Trump and Ukraine's European allies had been calling for a ceasefire ahead of any negotiations. Zelensky, who was not invited to Alaska for the summit, said he held a 'long and substantive' conversation with Trump early Saturday. He thanked him for an invitation to meet in person in Washington on Monday and said they would 'discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war'. Zelensky to meet Trump after US-Russia summit: What to expect? 04:14 It will be Zelensky's first visit to the US since Trump berated him publicly for being 'disrespectful' during an extraordinary Oval Office meeting on Feb. 28. Red carpet welcome for Putin Trump rolled out the red carpet on Friday for Putin, who was in the US for the first time in a decade and since the start of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But he gave little concrete detail afterward of what was discussed. On Saturday, he posted on social media that it 'went very well'. Trump had warned ahead of the summit of 'very severe consequences' for Russia if Putin doesn't agree to end the war. Zelensky reiterated the importance of involving European leaders, who also were not at the summit. 'It is important that Europeans are involved at every stage to ensure reliable security guarantees together with America,' he said. 'We also discussed positive signals from the American side regarding participation in guaranteeing Ukraine's security.' He didn't elaborate, but Zelensky previously has said that European partners put on hold a proposal to establish a foreign troop presence in Ukraine to deter future Russian aggression because it lacked an American backstop. Zelensky said he spoke to Trump one-on-one and then in a call with other European leaders. In total, the conversations lasted over 90 minutes. 'No deal until there's a deal' Trump said in Alaska that 'there's no deal until there's a deal', after Putin claimed the two leaders had hammered out an 'understanding' on Ukraine and warned Europe not to 'torpedo the nascent progress'. During an interview with Fox News Channel before returning to Washington, Trump insisted the onus going forward might be on Zelensky 'to get it done', but said there would also be some involvement from European nations. In a statement after speaking to Trump, major European leaders said they were ready to work with Trump and Zelensky toward 'a trilateral summit with European support'. The statement by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the European Union's two top officials said that 'Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees' and welcomed US readiness to provide them. 'It will be up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory,' they said. 'International borders must not be changed by force.' They did not mention a ceasefire, which they had hoped for ahead of the summit. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said 'the harsh reality is that Russia has no intention of ending this war anytime soon', noting that Moscow's forces launched new attacks on Ukraine even as the delegations met. 'Putin continues to drag out negotiations and hopes he gets away with it. He left Anchorage without making any commitments to end the killing,' she said. 'Mission accomplished' Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said the summit confirmed that 'while the US and its allies are looking for ways to peace, Putin is still only interested in making the greatest possible territorial gains and restoring the Soviet empire'. Ukrainian and Russian forces are fighting along a 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) front line. Since spring, Russian troops have accelerated their gains, capturing the most territory since the opening stages of the war. 'Vladimir Putin came to the Alaska summit with the principal goal of stalling any pressure on Russia to end the war,' said Neil Melvin, director of international security at the London-based Royal United Services Institute. 'He will consider the summit outcome as mission accomplished.' Zelensky voiced support for Trump's proposal for a trilateral meeting with the US and Russia. He said that 'key issues can be discussed at the level of leaders, and a trilateral format is suitable for this'. But Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said on Russian state television Saturday that a potential meeting of Trump, Putin and Zelensky has not been raised in US-Russia discussions. 'The topic has not been touched upon yet,' he said, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. End to Putin's isolation in the West Zelensky wrote on X that he told Trump that "sanctions should be strengthened if there is no trilateral meeting or if Russia tries to evade an honest end to the war'. Russian officials and media struck a largely positive tone, with some describing Friday's meeting as a symbolic end to Putin's isolation in the West. Former president Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia's Security Council, praised the summit as a breakthrough in restoring high-level dialogue between Moscow and Washington, describing the talks as 'calm, without ultimatums and threats'. Russian attacks on Ukraine continued overnight, using one ballistic missile and 85 Shahed drones, 61 of which were shot down, Ukraine's air force said. Front-line areas of Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Chernihiv were attacked. Russia's defence ministry said its air defences shot down 29 Ukrainian drones over Russia and the Sea of Azov overnight.
LeMonde
6 hours ago
- LeMonde
War in Ukraine: Trump fails to secure ceasefire from Putin
Pursuing peace. That was the motto of the meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on Friday, August 15, in Anchorage, Alaska, intended to secure a ceasefire on the ground in Ukraine and pave the way for a meeting between the US president and his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, including Volodymyr Zelensky. Many feared that this summit would become another Munich, with the United States abandoning Ukraine, attacked but not invited to the talks, to Russia – just as Czechoslovakia was handed over to Adolf Hitler in 1938. Others warned of another Yalta, the February 1945 conference that divided Europe between Joseph Stalin and the Anglo-Americans. In reality, no one knows what was negotiated in Anchorage on Friday, except that the summit was an undeniable failure for Trump. Before the meeting, the US president reiterated his demand: "I want to see a ceasefire rapidly. I don't know it's going to be today, but I'm not going to be happy if it's not today (...) I want the killing to stop. I'm here to stop the killing." Nothing of the sort was announced. No agreement was detailed, even if it cannot be ruled out that negotiations may have progressed. In the short term, peace will have to wait.
