The visuals tell the story. The first was the meeting held in the U.S. White House last February among Donald Trump, JD Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — a man who had been fighting for the survival of his country for three long years — when it devolved into an ambush: a malicious, belittling attack on Zelensky, with no discernible cause or justification:

And this was yesterday’s red-carpet reunion between the same Donald Trump and the world’s #1 pariah — and indicted war criminal — Vladimir Putin, in Anchorage, Alaska:

So much for Donald Trump’s choice of “friends.”

Yesterday’s much-touted summit in Alaska turned out — not unexpectedly — to be a big bag of nothing, insofar as Ukraine was concerned. No ceasefire agreement was reached; no trilateral meeting scheduled; no concessions hinted at by Putin; and no mention made of further sanctions against Russia.

Trump and Putin did, however, hug it out when the discussions turned to the possibility of future U.S.-Russian cooperation in the areas of trade and technology, which was apparently what they both wanted in the first place. Ukraine appeared to have been little more than the excuse for a get-together.

No substantive information was given to the public following the meeting, but bits and pieces are gradually becoming available today. And they’re not offering much hope for an early end to the war.

Previously, Trump had promised that any failure on Putin’s part to agree to a ceasefire would lead to additional, “punishing” sanctions. But that hasn’t happened, and isn’t likely to. Instead, Trump crossed the red line to Putin’s side when he wrote on Truth Social:

“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a peace agreement.” As for an interim ceasefire, he said they “often times do not hold up.” [Paul Adams, BBC, August 16, 2025.]

In a conversation with European leaders following the Alaska meeting, Trump said that Putin wants all of the eastern Ukraine Donbas region in exchange for a freeze of the current front lines. They also discussed potential “NATO-esque” security guarantees for Ukraine, with which Trump seems to have agreed . . . but which Putin will undoubtedly oppose. [Nick Paton Walsh, Frederik Pleitgen, et al., CNN, August 16, 2025.]

And the White House has confirmed a meeting between Trump and Zelensky in the Oval Office on Monday, August 18th, to be attended by at least one other European leader. Trump said that if that meeting goes well, he would then schedule a meeting with Putin. However, in Moscow, Yuri Ushakov — who attended the Alaska summit with Putin — told Russian state media that a second summit was a possibility, but that the idea of trilateral talks to include Zelensky had “not been touched upon.” [Bojan Pancevski, Laurence Norman and Daniel Michaels, The Wall Street Journal, August 16, 2025.]

Further, European officials who spoke with Trump post-summit said that he had told them Putin would not cease fighting during any peace talks, and that “Putin wanted to keep fighting.” And there were mixed signals as to Trump’s position on future security guarantees for Ukraine.

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Meanwhile, in Moscow, Vladimir Putin had this to say:

“Russian-American business and investment partnership has huge potential.” [Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic, August 16, 2025.]

Which, again, leaves Putin holding the winning hand.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/16/25