{"id":331277,"date":"2025-08-09T19:15:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T19:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/331277\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T19:15:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T19:15:24","slug":"trumps-meeting-with-putin-poses-high-stakes-for-the-ukraine-war-and-his-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/331277\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s meeting with Putin poses high stakes for the Ukraine war \u2014 and his legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 An unkept promise of Donald Trump\u2019s presidency is that he\u2019d end the war between Russia and Ukraine in one swift diplomatic masterstroke<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump made threats.<\/a> He applied pressure.<\/a> Still, the bombs keep falling, the casualties continue to pile up.<\/p>\n

Now, Trump is betting that a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin will yield the elusive breakthrough and possibly quell concerns among voters<\/a> about his handling of the war.<\/p>\n

The summit taking place Friday on friendly turf, the red state of Alaska, amounts to one of the biggest gambits of Trump\u2019s second term. Hosting the meeting raises expectations that he\u2019ll stop the fighting. The president faces traps in sitting down with Putin, who is well-versed in the territorial issues at stake, but he also enjoys economic and military leverage. Creating a durable peace that will preserve Ukraine\u2019s independence will test the dealmaking skills that are Trump\u2019s point of pride.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you roll into the meeting not prepped, you can get jammed by Putin,\u201d said Michael McFaul, who was U.S. ambassador to Russia in the Obama administration. \u201cSummits are to achieve an objective that advances American national interests. They\u2019re the means to end, and I sometimes feel that Trump feels the meeting is an end in itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside the Trump administration, a national security official acknowledged that forging a peace accord won\u2019t be easy. One of the combatants won’t be at the table: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has refused to relinquish territory to Russia that was illegally annexed.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhether or not there\u2019s a breakthrough in the next week or two, we\u2019ll find out,\u201d said the Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity. \u201cUltimately, Putin and Zelenskyy have to be able to agree on something fundamentally. Third parties can do anything they want, but these two men have to agree to things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitting in a room with Putin, a canny negotiator in his own right, Trump may be lured into endorsing a peace deal that carves up Ukraine, foreign policy experts caution.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worry that in the eagerness to look like a peacemaker, President Trump will say, \u2018Yeah, that sounds like a good idea to me,\u2019\u201d McFaul said. \u201cPutin will say, \u2018Donetsk [a city in eastern Ukraine] was always part of Russia.\u2019 And Trump will say, \u2018You\u2019re right about that.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cPutin is good at those stories,\u201d McFaul continued. \u201cHe knows his history, and he can be engaging in his narrative. That\u2019s what the president needs to be ready for and his team needs to get him ready for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another possibility is that Putin tries to stall the president further, promising concessions he has no intention of making in hopes of consolidating gains on the battlefield, one former U.S. official said.<\/p>\n

Putin may try to \u201cdivert President Trump from Trump\u2019s goal of stopping the war and establishing a ceasefire by promising things later,\u201d said William Taylor, who was charge d\u2019affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine during Trump\u2019s first term. \u201cThen, Putin continues to fight and continues to kill Ukrainians.\u201d<\/p>\n

No matter the outcome, Putin comes away with at least a symbolic victory: He\u2019s getting a large, bright stage at a time when he\u2019s an international pariah. Two years ago, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin,<\/a> accusing him of war crimes involving the abduction of Ukrainian children<\/a>. The warrant substantially limited potential locations for the two world leaders to meet.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump \u2014 just by going to a meeting with Putin, who for most of the democratic world is a rogue, imperialist dictator \u2014 is giving him legitimacy,\u201d McFaul said.<\/p>\n

The summit will inevitably invite comparisons to one held in Helsinki in 2018.<\/p>\n

At a joint news conference with Putin that year, Trump came off as eager to forge a personal connection after years of icy bilateral relations between the U.S and Russia. Citing Putin\u2019s denial of interfering in the 2016 presidential race, Trump said at the time<\/a>: \u201cI don\u2019t see any reason why it would be\u201d Russia that meddled in his victory over Hillary Clinton that year. (He later claimed<\/a> he had misspoken, affirming that he believed the U.S. intelligence community\u2019s conclusion that Russian meddling had occurred but added that there \u201ccould be other people also\u201d who interfered in the 2016 election.)<\/p>\n

This time around, Trump is more seasoned and has grown impatient with Putin\u2019s conduct of the war. He has suggested that his wife, Melania Trump,<\/a> has influenced his view of Putin, reminding him of the damage that Russia has inflicted on Ukraine.<\/p>\n

For his part, Putin is more diminished. As of this summer, Russian casualties<\/a> were expected to hit 1 million. If he chooses, Trump could punish Russia for prolonging the war by slapping secondary sanctions on countries that purchase Russian energy<\/a>, a step he has threatened to take.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump is in a stronger position this time than in that first meeting,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cIf President Trump goes into the meeting with Putin and exercises the political, military and economic leverage that he\u2019s got, there could be a ceasefire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump heads into the summit facing difficulties at home. His administration has struggled to stem the backlash from his base over the Jeffrey Epstein case.<\/a> Last week, Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics following a hiring report that showed weak job growth.<\/a><\/p>\n

A recent poll from the University of Massachusetts Amherst showed that Trump\u2019s approval rating was 38%<\/a> \u2014 a 6-point drop from April.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s pretty close to the theoretical floor in this polarized era for approval ratings,\u201d said Alexander Theodoridis, director of the poll.<\/p>\n

Among Trump voters, support for his handling of the Russia-Ukraine war stood at 64% compared to other issues on which they approved of his performance by significantly higher margins, Theodoridis said. A total of 85%<\/a> of Trump\u2019s 2024 voters approved of his performance on immigration issues; 78% favored his work on jobs; and 71% on tariffs.<\/p>\n

Statecraft is a proven way for presidents to improve their standing at home. A commander in chief enjoys far more latitude in shaping events in the foreign policy arena than when it comes to domestic affairs.<\/p>\n

The summit, said Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee, \u201cwill change the subject in a positive way for Trump if he actually stands up to Putin and demands a just peace for Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be a positive diversion,\u201d Coons added. \u201cBut it would be the worst of both worlds if it [the summit] is intended both to be a diversion from the domestic focus on things like tariffs and Epstein, and he fails to be strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

An added incentive for Trump to end the conflict could be an award that he seems to covet<\/a>. His White House appears to be methodically building a case that he has earned the Nobel Peace Prize, drawing attention to various efforts<\/a> to reduce tensions in global hot spots.<\/p>\n

Jan. 31 is the deadline for nominating candidates for the 2026 prize<\/a>. The Nobel selection committee will announce the winner in October of that year.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Trump held a ceremony<\/a> in the White House to mark a U.S.-brokered accord ending hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Questioned by reporters, the leaders of both countries touted Trump\u2019s candidacy for a prize that three other American presidents have won. Barack Obama was the most recent winner, in 2009.<\/p>\n

Still, the peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan would be merely an amuse-bouche compared to ending the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, a nuclear-armed power.<\/p>\n

\u201cPutin is clearly in a weaker position,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cThis invasion of Ukraine has turned out to be a disaster for him. And Trump has the cards this time. He\u2019s got leverage, experience and confidence. He\u2019s eager to solve this problem and end the war. He sees that Putin is the problem. Putin is standing between him and the end of the war.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 An unkept promise of Donald Trump\u2019s presidency is that he\u2019d end the war between Russia and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-331277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115000411856016352","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}