The meeting of August 15th between the US president Donald Trump and his counterpart Vladimir Putin will be held in the military base of Elmendorf-Richardson, less than 10 kilometers from Anchorage, reports CNN.
Russia continues the advance in Ukraine to strengthen in view of the summit with Donald Trump and “prepares a new offensive”, other than peace: the top in Alaska is actually “a personal victory” for Vladimir Putin. Volodymyr Zelensky does not use minor term in view of the mid -August summit and does not give up an inch reiterating his positions: “I exclude any withdrawal of the Ukrainian forces from Donbass”. The fear is always the same: that the US president and the leader of the Kremlin in Anchorage agree on an agreement that passes over the head of Kiev.
A concern shared by European partners who, two days after the summit, have a virtual appointment with Trump with Zelensky today to reiterate their position: the destiny of Ukraine is decided only with Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the American secretary of state Marco Rubio responds to Zelensky: the meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska does not represent a victory for the Kremlin and should not be seen as a concession to Russia.
The White House, for its part, does not comment on Zelensky’s thesis of a possible new Russian offensive, and is limited to reiterating the “respect” and the “commitment” of the president for the leader of Kiev and European partners. Meeting journalists in the White House, meanwhile, the Karoline Leavitt spokesman tried to dampen the excessive expectations for the summit: for Trump it is a “listening exercise”, he said, reiterating that Trump’s hope is that in the future of a trilateral summit with Putin and Zelensky.
“The president has always said he wanted peace. But this is a bilateral encounter with one of the two parties in war. And both sides are needed for an agreement,” Leavitt reiterated, unmving from the questions about what Trump meant by “exchange of territories” in a hypothetical agreement. This is a theme on which Zelensky pulls straight, excluding sales to Russia, in spite of what Putin would ask Steve Witkoff, the special envoy of the American president. Sales that, many analysts say, would also be counterproductive for the agreement stipulated between Trump and Kiev on the rare lands. The Donbass region is in fact rich in essential minerals and selling it to Russia would dementia the agreement announced with a great fanfare by Trump.
While publicly showing the hard punch, Zelensky behind the scenes – according to some rumors of the international media – would however be ready to make some territorial concessions to Russia in exchange for peace (as the Trump administration considers inevitable), as long as the negotiation includes the security guarantees for Kiev evoked in the plans of the European allies. In the talks with the partners of the Old Continent, the Ukrainian President would have urged to reject any proposal of solution that should come out in his absence from the two -to -two summit in Alaska. At the same time, however, he would have clarified that he was now willing to sign an agreement that leaves the control de facto of the territories that Moscow already occupies militarily on the ground in full or largely (the crimea plus the regions of Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzia and Kherson), as long as the agreement is associated with the “European plan”.
The pressure is high for Trump, and Putin – according to observers – is fully conscious. For this reason it would be in a position of strength: the leader of the Kremlin knows perfectly perfectly that the Tycoon wants an agreement with all its strength and this makes it more vulnerable. Not to mention that in the entourage of Trump, with the exception of the secretary of state Marco Rubio, nobody has ever criticized Putin. A situation therefore very different from that of the 2018 Helsinki summit, when The Donald was surrounded by hawks against Russia.
The Tsar will land in Anchorage – said John Bolton, the former councilor of Trump – determined to rewind the time and bring the tycoon back to February, at the time of the clash with Zelensky in the oval study. Putin will try to ‘court’ Trump with possible economic agreements, teasing the businessman who is in the president, and to relaunch those relationships between the two countries who have been blocked for years. “Ukraine will be at the center,” Leavitt assured responding to those who asked her if there were other issues on the agenda, such as economic and commercial relationships. At the moment the details on the face to face are few: it is not known, for example, if the two leaders will be left alone in a room (except for the translators) as happened in Helsinki. A hypothesis that worries many, above all remembering the results of the 2018 meeting.