Russia-Ukraine war: Trump runs into the difficulties of Putin diplomacy

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump walked into a summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin pressing for a ceasefire deal and threatening “severe consequences” and tough new sanctions if the Kremlin leader failed to agree to halt the fighting in Ukraine.

Instead, Trump was the one who stood down, dropping his demand for a ceasefire in favor of pursuing a full peace accord — a position that aligns with Putin’s.

After calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, Trump wrote as he flew home from Friday’s meeting in Alaska that it had been “determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.”

It was a dramatic reversal that laid bare the challenges of dealing with Putin, a cunning adversary, as well as the complexities of a conflict that Trump had repeatedly boasted during his campaign that he could solve within 24 hours.

Trump’s position after the summit with Putin

Few details have emerged about what the two leaders discussed or what constituted the progress they both touted. The White House did not respond to messages seeking comment Saturday.

While European leaders were relieved that Trump did not agree to a deal that ceded territory or otherwise favored Moscow, the summit allowed Putin to reclaim his place on the world stage and may have bought Russia more time to push forward with its offensive in Ukraine.

“We’re back to where we were before without him having gone to Alaska,” said Fiona Hill, who served as Trump’s senior adviser on Russia at the National Security Council during his first term, including when he last met Putin in Helsinki in 2018.

In an interview, Hill argued that Trump had emerged from the meeting in a weaker position on the world stage because of his reversal. Other leaders, she said, might now look at the U.S. president and think he’s “not the big guy that he thinks he is and certainly not the dealmaking genius.”

“All the way along, Trump was convinced he has incredible forces of persuasion,” she said, but he came out of the meeting without a ceasefire — the “one thing” he had been pushing for, even after he gave the Russian leader the “red carpet treatment.”

Trump has “run up against a rock in the form of Putin, who doesn’t want anything from him apart from Ukraine,” she said.

Democrats call for consequences for Putin

At home, Democrats expressed alarm at what at times seemed like a day of deference, with Trump clapping for Putin as he walked down a red carpet during an elaborate ceremony welcoming him to U.S. soil for the first time in a decade. The two rode together in the presidential limousine and exchanged compliments.

Trump seemed to revel in particular in Putin echoing his oft-repeated assertion that Russia never would have invaded Ukraine if Trump had been in office instead of Democrat Joe Biden at the time.

Before news cameras, Trump did not use the opportunity to castigate Putin for launching the largest ground invasion in Europe since World War II or human rights abuses he’s been accused of committing. Instead, Putin was the one who spoke first, and invited Trump to join him in Moscow next.

“President Trump appears to have been played yet again by Vladimir Putin,” said Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “The President rolled out a red carpet and warmly greeted a murderous dictator on American soil and reports indicate he got nothing concrete in return.”

“Enough is enough,” she went on. “If President Trump won’t act, Congress must do so decisively by passing crushing sanctions when we return in the coming weeks.”

Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who is the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he supports diplomacy but “peacemaking must be done responsibly.”

“Instead of caving to Putin, the U.S. should join our allies in levying tough, targeted new sanctions on Russia to intensify the economic pressure,” he said.

Trump has touted himself as the president of peace

Trump has tried to cast himself as a peacemaker, taking credit for helping deescalate conflicts between India and Pakistan as well as Thailand and Cambodia. He proudly mediated a peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo and another between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to end decades of fighting.

Trump has set his eye on the Nobel Peace Prize, with numerous allies offering nominations.

But Trump has struggled to made headway on the world’s two most vexing conflicts: the Russia-Ukraine war and Israel’s offensive in Gaza against Hamas.

Republicans and Trump allies offer little response so far

In Washington, the summit was met by little response from Trump’s allies. Republican lawmakers who spoke out were largely reserved and generally called for continued talks and constructive actions from the Trump administration.

“President Trump brought Rwanda and the DRC to terms, India and Pakistan to terms, Armenia and Azerbaijan to terms. I believe in our President, and believe he will do what he always does — rise to the challenge,” Rep. Brian Mast, a Florida Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement to The Associated Press.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, wrote on social media after the summit that “while the press conference offered few details about their meeting” she was “cautiously optimistic about the signals that some level of progress was made.”

Murkowski said it “was also encouraging to hear both presidents reference future meetings” but that Ukraine “must be part of any negotiated settlement and must freely agree to its terms.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and close Trump ally, offered that he was “very proud” of Trump for having had the face-to-face meeting and was “cautiously optimistic” that the war might end “well before Christmas” if a trilateral meeting between Trump, Zelenskyy and Putin transpires.

“I have all the confidence in the world that Donald Trump will make it clear to Putin this war will never start again. If it does, you’re going to pay a heavy price,” he said on Fox News.

For some Trump allies, the very act of him meeting with Putin was success enough: conservative activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk called it “a great thing.”

Some see a Putin win and a Trump loss

But in Europe, the summit was seen as a major diplomatic coup for Putin, who has been eager to emerge from geopolitical isolation.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, praised the summit as a breakthrough in restoring high-level dialogue between Moscow and Washington, describing the talks as “calm, without ultimatums and threats.”

Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt said the summit was “a distinct win for Putin. He didn’t yield an inch” but was also “a distinct setback for Trump. No ceasefire in sight.”

“What the world sees is a weak and wobbling America,” Bildt posted on X.

___

Burrows reported from London. AP reporters Matt Brown in Washington and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.