August 18, 2025

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Diplomatic Push on Ukraine Continues After Inconclusive Summit in Alaska

AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

U.S. President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday to discuss a possible peace deal for Ukraine, marking Putin’s first visit to the U.S. since 2007. Notably absent was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose delegation was not invited to join the talks. Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet with President Trump at the White House today. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, along with other European leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, President of Finland Alexander Stubb, President of France Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, are also expected to attend the meeting. The last meeting Zelenskyy had in Washington, D.C. ended in disaster, with Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance ambushing the Ukrainian president in a spectacle that many found beneath the dignity of the White House. Today’s meeting is expected to focus on security guarantees, territorial issues, as well as continued support for Ukraine and the imposition of further sanctions against Russia.

The Alaskan summit followed Trump’s decision to dispatch his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to Moscow a week earlier to meet with Putin. That visit came after a Trump-imposed deadline for Putin to reach a peace deal with Ukraine passed without result — a deadline that carried the threat of secondary sanctions, which have yet to be implemented. The talks in Alaska concluded with Trump and Putin agreeing to pursue a broader peace settlement, shifting away from the initial goals of Trump and Western allies to reach an immediate ceasefire agreement. Trump told European allies that he believed a peace deal could be reached if Ukraine would relinquish parts of the Donbas oblast, even though those areas are not occupied by Russian forces. In return, Putin stated he would offer a cease-fire at the current front lines and a written pledge that Moscow would not widen its military campaign. Such agreements have been broken by the Kremlin before.

The shift away from pursuing a ceasefire toward negotiating a broader peace agreement represents a major departure in U.S. policy and has caught both European partners and Ukrainian officials off guard — particularly because it plays into Russia’s current battlefield advantage. By sidelining a ceasefire, Moscow effectively gains space to continue pressing its military momentum while diplomatic talks unfold. Following the summit, Trump claimed on Truth Social that he had consulted with Zelenskyy and several European leaders and that all agreed it was better to move straight to a peace agreement without first halting the fighting. However, in a joint statement, Britain, France, Germany, and others emphasized that a cease-fire remains an essential precondition for talks and warned that economic pressure on Russia would intensify “as long as the killing in Ukraine continues.” Zelenskyy stated he would discuss “all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war” during his meeting with Trump today.

The summit came at a turbulent moment for Zelenskyy, whose wartime presidency has been shaken by an anti-corruption scandal that has driven his public trust down by nearly 10 points. The controversy has eroded his standing, making his exclusion from the Summit all the more dangerous politically for him. At the same time, such a meeting was a strategic win for Putin, regardless of the lack of material outcome. By simply showing up in Alaska, he has broken through diplomatic isolation, avoided the secondary sanctions Trump had threatened, and gained a powerful stage to influence U.S. policy. The summit also reveals tension within NATO and shifts the narrative toward Putin's broader objectives, such as restoring economic ties and reframing the war as part of a larger East–West standoff. Even without a concrete agreement, the optics, political leverage, and Trump’s departure from a ceasefire strategy are major victories for Moscow.

Analysts are also deeply skeptical of Putin’s commitment to any future peace deal, given that, on the eve of the Alaska summit, Russia launched strikes across multiple Ukrainian oblasts, including Sumy, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Donetsk. On Friday, Zelenskyy called these attacks deliberate acts meant to project strength ahead of the talks. Zelenskyy argued that the attacks underscored Moscow’s unwillingness to end the war and argued that any meaningful negotiations must include Ukraine alongside the U.S. and Russia, with explicit security guarantees in place.

With the Alaska summit now putting the option of ceding parts of the Donbas on the table, the earlier discussions in Washington and Moscow about potential land swaps take on new urgency. Handing over territory would risk legitimizing Russia’s irredentist ambitions and set a dangerous precedent by normalizing territorial conquest. Even so, some analysts argue that Ukraine and its Western partners may need to confront the current trajectory of the war and the possibility that Kyiv’s bargaining power could erode as the conflict continues.

Russia currently controls roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, has shown the capacity to sustain its campaign, and could outlast Kyiv if Western support wanes. While Ukraine’s counter-offensives have been bold and at times tactically successful, they have fallen short of major strategic goals and yielded less territorial recovery than hoped. It controls only a small strip of Russian territory, having been pushed out of the Kursk region earlier this year. From this perspective, Ukraine’s bargaining position may weaken over time, and if it wants to end the fighting while still holding meaningful leverage, it may have to strike a deal sooner rather than later — potentially accepting some territorial concessions to secure Moscow’s commitment.

However, without binding security commitments, Ukraine simply cannot risk any form of land swap — a reality that makes Trump’s pre-summit announcement ruling out NATO protection, and Putin’s offer of merely a written pledge not to widen the war, particularly dangerous for Kyiv. Past cease-fires between Russia and Ukraine have served only as tactical pauses for Moscow, not steps toward lasting peace. And even the notion of a “swap” is highly dubious, since the Kremlin has already declared that it will not give up Kherson or Zaporizhzhia, claiming both as constitutionally part of Russia.

The outcome of the summit has added to concerns among allies that the United States may be prepared to pressure Kyiv into territorial concessions in order to end the war. If today’s meeting with Zelenskyy goes poorly, Washington could point to Ukraine’s refusal to compromise as a pretext to reduce or suspend support — portraying Kyiv as the side unwilling to pursue peace. The presence of European leaders, including Starmer and Merz, is an attempt to ‘stack the deck’ and bolster Zelenskyy with the unflinching support that Ukraine so desperately needs at this point in the conflict.