Elena Teslova
18 August 2025•Update: 18 August 2025
- Russian analysts say Trump-Putin summit marked the first serious attempt to prevent the Ukraine war from spiraling into a global conflict, but its success hinges on Europe and Kyiv’s response
- Trump greeted Putin as ‘a dignified head of state,’ ‘abandoned all ultimatums’ and ‘conceded that delicate issues demand patience rather than deadlines,’ says former Putin adviser Sergey Markov
- Trump inviting Putin to Alaska ‘clearly demonstrated the failure of the previous US administration’s attempts to isolate Russia internationally,’ says Russian analyst Andrei Sitov
MOSCOW
The historic Alaska summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin offered signs of progress but stopped short of delivering a breakthrough.
Russian analysts say the meeting may have marked the first serious attempt to prevent the war in Ukraine from spiraling into a wider global conflict, but its success will hinge on Europe and Ukraine’s response.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a raft of European leaders are meeting Trump at the White House on Monday, among them French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and the heads of NATO and the European Commission.
Moscow is closely following the high-stakes meeting, where the agenda is expected to include the US offering security guarantees to Ukraine in exchange for concessions such as Kyiv abandoning its NATO ambitions and giving up some territorial claims.
From the Alaska summit, one thing that stood out for Putin’s former adviser Sergey Markov was Trump’s “warm reception” of the Russian president.
“He (Trump) disregarded calls from Europeans and globalists who were urging for negative treatment of Putin. Instead, Trump greeted him as a dignified head of state, even expressing partial friendship and applauding lightly during their meeting,” Markov, director of the Moscow-based Russian Institute of Political Studies, told Anadolu.
Another key takeaway for Russia, he stressed, was Trump’s decision to avoid ultimatums. “It’s also beneficial that Trump abandoned all ultimatums … Although the talks failed to secure an immediate ceasefire commitment from Putin, Trump refrained from imposing sanctions. He conceded that delicate issues demand patience rather than deadlines,” he explained.
According to Markov, Trump also appeared willing to pursue a broader peace rather than settle for a fragile ceasefire. “That’s why there are some positives here. However, the problem lies in the fact that they only reached preliminary agreements regarding peace,” he said.
He underlined the importance of Ukraine and Europe in the next phase of negotiations. “True progress mandates engagement from Zelenskyy,” he said. “Only Zelenskyy commands the authority to instruct the Ukrainian armed forces to terminate military action and retreat from Donbas.”
He added that European governments will also play a decisive role, particularly on the issue of cutting military aid to Ukraine. Without such assurances, he argued, “comprehensive peace remains elusive.”
Calling the talks “challenging yet fruitful,” Markov said Trump is now pushing the preliminary terms to Zelenskyy and European leaders, but warned that the conditions might be unacceptable for them.
“One could say that now the center of world diplomacy shifts to Brussels and Kyiv. However, neither Zelenskyy nor the European leaders will feel particularly happy about this development, given how tough the conditions agreed upon by Putin and Trump appear for them,” he noted.
‘Time is running out’
Russian analyst and columnist Andrei Sitov views the Alaska summit as the first genuine effort to tackle a conflict many fear could spiral into nuclear confrontation.
The “historic significance of this meeting … does not appear exaggerated,” he told Anadolu, emphasizing that it could lead to significant outcomes.
He argued that both leaders were justified in hailing the meeting as a success.
Trump inviting Putin to Alaska “clearly demonstrated the failure of the previous US administration’s attempts to isolate Russia internationally,” Sitov noted.
For the US, he said, the talks were equally valuable, as Moscow signaled openness to dialogue despite making “military gains” in Ukraine.
Sitov added that the peace effort also aligns closely with Trump’s domestic agenda and personal ambitions. Ending the Ukraine war would deliver on a central campaign pledge while boosting his prospects in next year’s congressional midterms, he said.
“Of course, Trump himself has said, and others following him have repeated, that serious conflicts cannot be resolved quickly or easily. But his time is running out.”
