by Miceal O’Hurley
KYIV — The Alaska Summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin ultimately served as little more than an opportunity for the diplomatic rehabilitation of Russia and a forum for the most peculiar mutual admiration society in existence. It was a Summit that gave us remarkable if not jarring visual takeaways. It began with photographs of American soldiers kneeling before the Russian Presidential jet, rolling out the red carpet for Putin – a war criminal and man wanted for child kidnapping and trafficking. It then shifted to the staged appearance of American Archbishop of Alaska, Metropolitan Alexei, warmly greeting Putin before they exchanged icons. It ended with Putin laughing at the “press conference” without answers when a reporter asked about the possibility of a ceasefire.
Many in Europe have given a sigh of relief that no “land-for-peace” deal was announced. This misses the point.
In his closing statement Trump announced it was “now up to President Zelenskii” to reach a peace deal and making clear a global settlement was preferable to an immediate ceasefire while negotiations take place. Trump changed the goals, abandoned any talk of new sanctions on Russian oil he promised only the week before and gave no indication of a framework for peace negotiations to take place. Moreover, he has significantly helped in the diplomatic rehabilitation of Putin and Russian on the world stage.
Trump’s strategy worked for him even if it worsened matters for Ukraine in terms of turning public opinion against Kyiv for the war continuing. A weekend SKYNews headline claimed Trump made “Great Progress” while a Monday BBC headline reads, “Ukraine’s fate now in their hands”. Even the AP Headline “Trump Leaves Alaska with Putin Empty Handed” demonstrates the reality of what occurred at the Summit. Trump, who promised to end the war, “in just one day” transferred responsibility for the war continuing from the aggressor, Russia, to the victim, Ukraine for not readily breaching its Constitution and international law by surrendering land to Russia.
Putin certainly did not leave “Empty Handed”. Following the sight of American soldiers kneeling before his Russian jet rolling out a red carpet as if it were a welcoming for a royal as opposed to a war criminal, Putin left with a photographic record of his rehabilitation by the world’s greatest power. Comparing it to the photographs of Trump and Vice President JD Vance berating Zelenskii in the White House, Putin fared exceptionally well. He even got the American born son of a Methodist Minister now the Archbishop of Alaska warmly greeting him on the grounds of a US military base complete with the exchange of highly personal gifts and mutual exclamations of praise.
For his part, Trump seemed determined to rescue Putin. Despite gaining less than 1% of Ukrainian territory between 2023-2025, Trump seemed determined to peg the goal as Ukraine completely withdrawing from its sovereign territory, even capitulating soil Russians have neither won nor occupied all in the name of an elusive peace deal. Trump couldn’t even deliver a ceasefire. He did, however, decline to impose the new oil sanctions both threatened and promised in the absence of a ceasefire. Its hard to believe Putin and the world won’t see this as the further debasement of America’s commitment to the principles of international law, a rules-based world order, value of diplomacy as an alternative to conflict as well as both moral and ethical principles.
Putin paid nothing for his rehabilitation and instead left with a further demonstration and commitment by Trump to shift blame to Zelenskii and Ukraine and provide him more time to target Ukrainian civilians in the hopes of crushing their will to survive as an independent nation. The Alaska Summit will no doubt be seen by historians as a capitulation of values and ethics even if contemporaries see is as a victory simply because an agreement to divide Ukraine without its agreement did not occur.
One of the most troubling take-aways from the Putin-Trump Alaska Summit was the failure of the world community to truly consider the depravity of suggesting millions of Ukrainians be stripped of their citizenship and forcibly undergo passportisation to be coercively made Russians. Given that tens-of-millions of Europeans were forced to become Soviet citizens or accept Russian suzerainty following the erection of the Iron Curtain after World War II the prospect of repeating this process, even on a small scale (for the moment) should be causing wide-spread alarm. The very idea of families being divided, homes and businesses being forfeited to Russia who is already profiting from reselling commandeered property in occupied Ukraine to Russian buyers, and subjugating people who knew democracy and had European integration aspirations to Russian bondage seems as unthinkable as it is immoral.
No “land-for-peace” deal has any prospect of durability. As I told an audience on Al Qahera TV News Friday before the summit began, the only outcome of such a deal would be to move Russia’s borders further into Europe at the cost of the freedom of its residents. Putin’s claims of cassis belli for the war, the existence of a non-aligned, fabricated country on its borders whose identity should truly be considered Malorussian (‘Little Russians’) is intolerable to its sense of security. Putin has no intention of stopping his campaign of violence and war on Ukraine or Europe until such time as Ukraine ceases to exist. As long as there is a free, independent and sovereign Ukraine, Putin has declared there will be cause for war.
Further talks of security guarantees by Russia and the United States should be taken for what they proved to be in the past – empty promises. Russia and the United States already gave such guarantees for Ukraine’s security in the 1991 Budapest Memorandum. Ukraine’s borders were pledged to be sacred – and yet look how that turned-out. Considering security pledges again from the same guarantors, including the same United States that only 9-months ago pledged “as long as it takes” and now pushes for an immediate end to the war by means of forfeiting land and the freedom of millions of Ukrainians, should give pause for all to consider.
Its time for Europe to re-focus the cause and responsibility of war on Russia and maintain Putin’s status as a war criminal, wanted for arrest, and unwelcome in Europe or by international organisations until it restores Ukraine to its 1991 borders.
In the meanwhile, at the very least, an enduring ceasefire with neither side claiming or forfeiting territory in hopes of a diplomatic resolution prevailing should remain an immediate priority.
Original Al Qahera broadcast in Arabic can be found here: https://youtu.be/AP3SXsVtfs0?si=6nze5c83Xw5iuQ-l
