Suffering Ukrainians dismayed by outcome and optics of Trump-Putin summit
KYIV/ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (Reuters) -Ukrainians expressed anger and frustration on Saturday over the failure of the U.S. and Russian presidents to agree on the need for a truce in the Ukraine war at a summit, and the sight of Donald Trump giving Vladimir Putin a red-carpet welcome in Alaska.
Trump urged Ukraine to make a deal to end the war because "Russia is a very big power". Trump also said he agreed with Putin that the sides should focus on an overall peace settlement, not via a ceasefire, as Kyiv and its European allies have been demanding - until now with U.S. support.
"He (Putin) won. Trump showed his attitude towards him and at the same time towards us. This meeting did not end well for Ukraine," said a 26-year-old soldier who gave only his call-sign "Dzha".
"... we need to end the war. We need to really sit down at the negotiating table and talk, come to an agreement, because every day fighters die, get injured."
"Dzha" was serving as godfather at a baptism in a church in Zaporizhzhia, southeastern Ukraine, one of four regions Russia claims to have annexed, though it does not fully control them.
'BOMBS WILL KEEP FALLING ON US'
"They (Putin and Trump) made some agreements for their states," said Viktor Tkach, the chaplain conducting the baptism. "And here in Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, in the Zaporizhzhia region, we will keep suffering, glide bombs will keep falling on us."
Some were outraged that Trump had invited Putin to the U.S. and treated him with such respect, as an equal.
Putin has been ostracised by Western leaders since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and is wanted by the International Criminal Court, accused of the war crime of deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, which he denies.
"Literally yesterday, a ballistic missile was launched at Sumy. And this animal (Putin) flies to Alaska where people applaud him, and the red carpet is rolled out in front of him," said Hanna Kucherenko, a 25-year-old model, in Kyiv. "How is that even possible now?"
A manipulated image of Trump and Putin shaking hands on the airport tarmac against the backdrop of bombed residential apartment blocks in Ukraine circulated widely online.
"I do not know what Trump is even thinking about. I have an impression that he is just the same (as Putin)," said Kyiv pensioner Tetiana Vorobei. "They are identical."
(Writing by Gareth Jones; Additional Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
19 minutes ago
- The Star
Hungarian opposition leader demands Russia refrain from interference
FILE PHOTO: Peter Magyar, leader of Hungary's main opposition Tisza party, delivers a speech at a party rally in Szekesfehervar, Hungary, July 26, 2025. REUTERS/Marton Monus/File Photo BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar has sought assurances from Russia that it will refrain from interference in his country's politics, saying there would be no scope for meaningful cooperation without respecting its sovereignty. Earlier this week, Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) published a statement describing Magyar as being loyal to "globalist elites" and alleging that the European Commission was considering "regime change in Budapest." Magyar, whose Tisza Party is ahead of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz in most polls ahead of parliamentary elections due next spring, published an open letter to Russia's ambassador in Hungary, asking what was the intended effect of the SVR statement. "I demand clear assurances that the Russian Federation will refrain from any actions that could be deemed as interference in Hungary's domestic politics, including disinformation campaigns, cyber operations or the intimidation of politicians and citizens," Magyar said in the letter published on Facebook on Sunday. The Russian Embassy in Budapest did not immediately respond to emailed questions for comment. In power since 2010, Orban has been criticised by some fellow EU leaders for his government's warm ties with Moscow and opposition to military aid for Ukraine. Orban has also accused EU leaders of plotting to topple him. Magyar, a former government insider, has previously said he would strive for "pragmatic relations" with Russia, which supplies Hungary with most of its energy and is also involved in an expansion of its Paks nuclear plant. He said the SVR's statement showed Russia was trying to intervene directly to sway voters in Hungary, which is a member of the NATO military alliance but which under Orban has refused to send weapons to neighbouring Ukraine. "Hungary's sovereignty and the inviolability of our democratic processes cannot be negotiable. Adherence to these principles is the minimum requirement for any meaningful bilateral cooperation between our countries," Magyar said. (Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; Editing by David Holmes)
New Straits Times
2 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Plastic pollution deal now appears adrift
THE collapse on Friday of a sixth round of UN talks aimed at curbing plastic output has dimmed hopes of tackling a key source of pollution and left many advocates of restrictions pessimistic about a global deal during the Trump administration. A three-year global push to reach a legally binding treaty to curb plastic pollution choking the oceans and harming human health now appears adrift, participants said. Many states and campaigners blamed the failure on oil-producers, including the United States, which they said hardened long-held positions and urged others to reject caps on new plastic production that would have curbed output of polymers. Debbra Cisneros, a negotiator for Panama, which supported a strong deal, said the United States, the world's number two plastics producer behind China, was less open than in previous rounds conducted under Joe Biden's administration. "This time they were just not wanting anything. So it was hard, because we always had them against us in each of the important provisions," she said at the end of the 11-day talks. Anti-plastic campaigners saw little hope for a change in Washington's position under President Donald Trump, who in February signed an executive order encouraging consumers to buy plastic drinking straws. "The mentality is different, and they want to extract more oil and gas out of the ground," said Bjorn Beeler, International Coordinator at International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), a global network of more than 600 public-interest NGOs. The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about its positions and its role in the talks. US delegate John Thompson declined to respond to questions from a Reuters reporter on the outcome. A State Department spokesperson previously said each party should take measures according to its national context, while Washington has expressed concerns that the new rules could increase the costs of all plastic products. The Trump administration has also rolled back various US climate and environmental policies that it says place too many burdens on national industry. Earlier last week, Washington also flexed its muscle in talks about another global environmental agreement when it threatened measures against states backing a proposal aimed at reducing shipping emissions. For a coalition of some 100 countries seeking an ambitious deal in Geneva, production limits are essential. Fiji's delegate Sivendra Michael likened excluding this provision to "mopping the floor without turning off the tap". For each month of delays, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said nearly a million tonnes of plastic waste accumulates — some of which washes up on the beaches of island states. Some participants also blamed organisers, the International Negotiating Committee (INC), a UN-established body supported by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). A low point was a formal meeting an hour before the negotiations were set to conclude at midnight on Thursday which lasted less than a minute and was then adjourned until dawn, prompting laughter and jeering from delegates. "Everyone was in shock as no one understood," said Ana Rocha, Global Plastics Policy Director for environmental group GAIA. "It's almost like they were playing with small children." France's ecology minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher called proceedings "chaotic". Asked what went wrong, INC chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso blamed the rift between countries and called the negotiations complex. "But we have advanced and that's important," he said. UN provisional rules require all states to agree — a constraint that some see as unworkable, especially under a US administration that is retreating from multilateralism. "Consensus is dead. You cannot agree a deal where all the countries who produce and export plastics and oil can decide the terms of what the deal is going to be," said IPEN's Beeler. Some delegates and campaigners suggested introducing voting to break the deadlock or even for the UN-led process to be abandoned altogether. The WWF and others called on ambitious states to pursue a separate deal, with the hope of getting plastics-producing nations on board later. Two draft deals emerged from the talks — one more ambitious than the other. Neither was adopted. It is unclear when the next meeting will take place, with states merely agreeing to reconvene at a later date.
New Straits Times
2 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Putin wins Ukraine concessions but doesn't get all he wants
IN a few short hours in Alaska, Vladimir Putin managed to convince Donald Trump that a Ukraine ceasefire was not the way to go, stave off US sanctions, and spectacularly shatter years of Western attempts to isolate the Russian president. Outside Russia, Putin was widely hailed as the victor of the Alaska summit while at home, Russian state media cast the United States president as a prudent statesman, even as critics in the West accused him of being out of his depth. Russian state media made much of the fact that Putin was afforded a military fly-over, that Trump waited for him on the red carpet, and then let the Russian president ride with him in the back of the "Big Beast", the US presidential limousine. But Putin's biggest summit wins related to the war in Ukraine, where he appears to have persuaded Trump, at least in part, to embrace Russia's vision of how a deal should be done. Trump had gone into the meeting saying he wanted a quick ceasefire and had threatened Putin and Russia's biggest buyer of its crude oil — China — with sanctions. Afterwards, Trump said he had agreed with Putin that negotiators should go straight to a peace settlement and not through a ceasefire as Ukraine and its European allies had been demanding — previously with US support. "The US president's position has changed after talks with Putin, and now the discussion will focus not on a truce, but on the end of the war. And a new world order. Just as Moscow wanted," Olga Skabeyeva, one of Russian state TV's most prominent talk show hosts, said on Telegram. The fact that the summit even took place was a win for Putin before it even started, given how it brought him in from the diplomatic cold with such pomp. Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president and a close Putin ally, said the summit had achieved a major breakthrough when it came to restoring US-Russia relations, which Putin had lamented were at their lowest level since the Cold War. "The mechanism for high-level meetings between Russia and the United States has been restored in its entirety," he said. But Putin did not get everything he wanted and it's unclear how durable his gains will be. For one, Trump did not hand him the economic reset he wanted — something that would boost the Russian president at a time when his economy is showing signs of strain after more than three years of war and increasingly tough Western sanctions. Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy aide, said before the summit the talks would touch on trade and economic issues. Putin had brought his finance minister and the head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund all the way to Alaska with a view to discussing potential deals on the Arctic, energy, space and the technology sector. In the end, though, they didn't get a look in. Trump told reporters on Air Force One before the summit started there would be no business done until the war in Ukraine was settled. It's also unclear how long the sanctions reprieve that Putin won will last. Trump said it would probably be two or three weeks before he would need to return to the question of thinking about imposing secondary sanctions on China, to hurt financing for Moscow's war machine. Nor did Trump — judging by information that has so far been made public — do what some Ukrainian and European politicians had feared the most and sell Kyiv out by doing a deal over the head of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy. Trump made clear that it was up to Zelenskyy as to whether he would agree — or not — with ideas of land swaps and other elements for a peace settlement that the US president had discussed with Putin in Alaska. While deliberations continue, Russian forces are slowly but steadily advancing on the battlefield. According to the New York Times, Trump told European leaders that Ukrainian recognition of Donbas as Russian would help get a deal done. And the US is ready to be part of security guarantees for Ukraine, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said. "For Putin, economic problems are secondary to his goals, but he understands our vulnerability and the costs involved," said one source familiar with Kremlin thinking. "It will be Trump's job to pressure Ukraine to recognise the agreements."
