Putin got everything he wanted from Trump – Ukraine will be terrified for what comes next

Both Ukraine and Europe will be concerned about the Alaska summit and how it took place, writes Jon Sopel, and it’s not looking good for President Zelensky’s imminent visit to the White House

When I went to bed last night, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin had just gone into their summit meeting in Anchorage, Alaska – and I really had not the faintest idea what I might wake up to.

Would it be a comprehensive peace deal agreed between the two of them that would totally screw Ukraine; or would it be a furious Trump announcing massive, punitive sanctions against Russia over Putin’s intransigence – something he had been threatening just a couple of weeks ago before announcing the summit? Or would it be any number of outcomes in between? Instead, we woke up to – well, what exactly?

Sure, there was a lot of vacuous vibe stuff about progress, constructive talks, deeper understanding, but let’s be clear about the headline: THERE WAS NO DEAL. The missiles, the attack drones, will continue and, as far as we can tell, there is no timetable for a ceasefire.

Maybe the more interesting exercise is to consider what each man wanted out of it. Let’s start with the Russian leader. Vladimir Putin wanted to stave off the threat of US sanctions, he wanted to gain more time to prosecute his war against Ukraine, he wanted to end his and Russia’s diplomatic isolation, he wanted to peel the US off from the rest of Europe, he wanted to keep Zelensky as far away from this as far as possible and he wanted to flatter his host, Donald Trump.

As you go down that list, you just have to mark it tick, tick, tick, tick. He’s a straight-A student. Trump described the meeting as 10 out of 10; for Putin, it really was. He flew back to Moscow having achieved everything he wanted.

There are no new sanctions. Donald Trump literally rolled out the red carpet for him and applauded Putin before shaking his hand warmly. The meeting took place on US soil, with all European leaders thousands of miles away. Just think if the summit had happened in Europe, Putin would have had to have been arrested for alleged war crimes over what he’s done in Ukraine after the warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.

According to the Kremlin, there was no discussion of tripartite talks including the Ukrainian leader. And if you’re going to flatter, what more of a zinger could there have been than Putin telling Trump this war would never have started if he had been president in 2022. The sweetest music to his ears.

There are no new sanctions. Donald Trump literally rolled out the red carpet for him and applauded Putin before shaking his hand warmly (AFP/Getty)

Now let’s consider the other side of the ledger: what did Trump want? Well, he has told us explicitly and repeatedly what he’s after. Laudably and sincerely, he wants an end to the killing. He wants a ceasefire. He then wants an enduring peace. And on that front, you would have to say he came away utterly empty-handed.

Maybe there are two other things Trump was after in hosting this. One was to have the world’s media attention focused laser-like on him for 24 hours – in which case, tick. I bet Anchorage airport has had its busiest day in years with film crews from around the world flying in.

The other driving ambition of Trump is to reset relations with Putin in particular – and it is about Putin. There are well-worn theories that the Russians must have kompromat on Trump to explain his apparent obsequiousness when talking about the Russian leader. I have never really bought that.

Someone who has got to know Trump well explained it to me differently. This person said that the thing you have to understand about him is that he is a creature of the era in which he grew up: the Cold War, the Iron Curtain, the stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Trump has a horror of nuclear armageddon, as do we all. Though Russia may only amount to two per cent of the world’s GDP (the US is about 25 per cent), it has 45 per cent of the world’s nuclear stockpile. Therefore, in Trump’s mind, you have to have good relations with Russia for fear of what might happen if you don’t.

It is an interesting theory, but surely this cannot excuse the turning of a blind eye to the greatest act of aggression in Europe against a sovereign state since the Second World War. Also, just because you’ve got a nuke doesn’t make you all-powerful. Britain having nuclear weapons didn’t act as much of a deterrent when the Argentinians chose to invade the Falklands in 1982.

In a post-summit interview with Sean Hannity from Fox News, Trump was vague but gave the impression that the ball was now in Zelensky’s court, almost as though Trump had bought Putin’s arguments, and concessions were now required from the Ukrainian leader.

Maybe at some future date, there will be a deal that gives land to Russia in return for security guarantees for Ukraine, but what this might look like is still anyone’s guess.

It’s hard to exaggerate how unusual this all is. Normally in superpower politics, the two principals don’t come together until the outriders, sherpas, government lawyers, political advisers, and national security experts have cobbled together a draft communique, having haggled over every comma and full stop. Then, the summit is a glorified photo-op for each leader to flourish his fountain pen and put a signature on the document.

But that’s not how Donald Trump rolls. Steve Witkoff, his special envoy (and a man with zero diplomatic experience), who laid the ground for this summit, has been turning up in Moscow with only his girlfriend for company. At the Kremlin meetings, he has sat completely alone opposite the combined might of Putin, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and key adviser Yuri Ushakov. Witkoff had no note takers, no advisers, and was 100 per cent reliant on a Kremlin translator.

Should Ukraine be concerned? Should Europe be concerned about the way this summit has come about and the way it’s unfolded? They’d be stark raving mad not to be.

Zelensky will return to DC on Monday and will meet Trump once again at the White House. I mean: what could possibly go wrong?