If you happen to’re perplexed concerning the goals, behavior and end result of the summit assembly between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian chief Vladimir Putin held in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15, 2025, you’re almost certainly now not by myself.
As summits cross, the assembly broke with many conventions of international relations: It used to be last-minute, it looked as if it would forget about longstanding protocol and accounts of what came about had been conflicting within the days after the early termination of the development.
The Dialog U.S.’s politics editor Naomi Schalit interviewed Donald Heflin, a veteran diplomat now instructing at Tufts College’s Fletcher College, to assist untangle what came about and what may just occur subsequent.
It used to be a all of a sudden deliberate summit. Trump mentioned they’d accomplish issues that they didn’t appear to perform. The place do issues stand now?
It didn’t marvel me or any skilled diplomat that there wasn’t a concrete consequence from the summit.
First, the 2 events, Russia and Ukraine, weren’t asking to come back to the peace desk. Neither certainly one of them is able but, it sounds as if. 2nd, the method used to be incorrect. It wasn’t ready neatly sufficient prematurely, on the secretary of state and international minister stage. It wasn’t ready on the workforce stage.
What used to be a bit of of a marvel used to be the final couple days earlier than the summit, the White Space began sending out what I assumed had been more or less practical indicators. They mentioned, “Hopefully we’ll get a ceasefire and then a second set of talks a few weeks in the future, and that’ll be the real set of talks.”
UK High Minister Keir Starmer, right here embracing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in London on Aug. 14, 2025, is one of the Ecu leaders voicing sturdy strengthen for Ukraine and Zelenskyy.
Jordan Pettitt/PA Pictures by way of Getty Pictures
Now, that’s more or less affordable. That may have came about. That used to be now not a horrible plan. The issue used to be it didn’t occur. And we don’t know precisely why it didn’t occur.
Studying between the traces, there have been a pair issues. The primary is the Russians, once more, simply weren’t able to try this, they usually mentioned, “No ceasefire. We want to go straight to permanent peace talks.”
Ukraine doesn’t need that, and neither do its Ecu allies. Why?
While you do a ceasefire, what usually occurs is you allow the fighters in ownership of no matter land their army holds at this time. That’s simply a part of the deal. You don’t cross right into a 60- or 90-day ceasefire and say everyone’s were given to tug again to the place they had been 4 years in the past.
However in case you cross to an everlasting peace plan, which Putin needs, you’ve were given to make a decision that persons are going to tug again, proper? In order that’s drawback primary.
Drawback quantity two is it’s transparent that Putin is insisting on protecting one of the most territory that his troops seized in 2014 and 2022. That’s only a non-starter for the Ukrainians.
Is Putin doing that as a result of that truly is his base line call for, or did he need to blow up those peace talks, and that used to be an effective way to blow them up? It may well be both or each.
Russia has made it transparent that it needs to stay portions of Ukraine, in response to historical past and ethnic make-up.
The issue is, the sector group has made it transparent for many years and many years and many years, you don’t get what you wish to have by way of invading the rustic subsequent door.
Have in mind in Gulf Warfare I, when Saddam Hussein invaded and swallowed Kuwait and made it the nineteenth province of Iraq? The U.S. and Europe went in there and kicked him out. Then there also are examples the place the U.S. and Europe have instructed international locations, “Don’t do this. You do this, it’s going to be bad for you.”
So if Russia learns that it could actually invade Ukraine and grasp territory and be allowed to stay it, what’s to stay them from doing it to a few different nation? What’s to stay any other nation from doing it?
You imply the entire global is gazing.
Sure. And the opposite factor the sector is gazing is the U.S. gave safety promises to Ukraine in 1994 once they gave up the nuclear guns they held, as did Europe. The U.S. has, each diplomatically and when it comes to fingers, supported Ukraine all through this warfare. If the U.S. permits them to down, what sort of message does that ship about how dependable a spouse the U.S. is?
The U.S. has this complete thing more going at the different facet of the sector the place the rustic is confronting China on quite a lot of ranges. What if the U.S. sends a sign to the Taiwanese, “Hey, you better make the best deal you can with China, because we’re not going to back your play.”
Ukrainian cops evacuate a resident from a residential development in Bilozerske following an airstrike by way of Russian invading forces on Aug. 17, 2025.
Pierre Crom/Getty Pictures
No less than six Ecu leaders are coming to Washington in conjunction with Zelenskyy. What does that let you know?
They’re presenting a united entrance to Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to mention, “Look, we can’t have this. Europe’s composed of a bunch of countries. If we get in the situation where one country invades the other and gets to keep the land they took, we can’t have it.”
President Trump had talked to they all earlier than the summit, they usually almost certainly got here away with a powerful impact that the U.S. used to be going for a ceasefire. After which, that didn’t occur.
As a substitute, Trump took Putin’s place of going immediately to peace talks, no ceasefire.
I don’t suppose they appreciated it. I believe they’re coming in to mention to him, “No, we have to go to ceasefire first. Then talks and, PS, taking territory and keeping it is terrible precedent. What’s to keep Russia from just storming into the three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – next? The maps of Europe that were drawn 100 years ago have held. If we’re going to let Russia erase a bunch of the borders on the map and incorporate parts, it could really be chaotic.”
The place do you notice issues going?
Till and except you pay attention there’s a ceasefire, not anything’s truly came about and the events are proceeding to combat and kill.
What I’d search for after the Monday conferences is, does Trump stick with his weapons post-Alaska and say, “No, we’re gonna have a big, comprehensive peace agreement, and land for peace is on the table.”
Or does he more or less swing again in opposition to the Ecu perspective and say, “I really think the first thing we got to have is a ceasefire”?
Even critics of Trump wish to recognize that he’s by no means been a warmonger. He doesn’t like warfare. He thinks it’s too chaotic. He can’t regulate it. No telling what’s going to occur on the different finish of warfare. I believe he sincerely needs for the taking pictures and the killing to prevent above all else.
The best way you do that could be a ceasefire. You might have two events say, “Look, we still hate each other. We still have this really important issue of who controls these territories, but we both agree it’s in our best interest to stop the fighting for 60, 90 days while we work on this.”
If you happen to don’t pay attention that popping out of the White Space into the Monday conferences, this isn’t going anyplace.
There are millions of Ukrainian youngsters who’ve been taken by way of Russia – necessarily abducted. Does that input into any of those negotiations?
It will have to. It used to be a fear tactic.
This can be a position the place you’ll make growth. If Putin mentioned, neatly, “We still don’t want to give you any land, but, yeah, these kids here, you can have them back,” it’s the type of factor you throw at the desk to turn that you just’re now not a nasty man and you might be more or less fascinated by those talks.
Whether or not they’ll do this or now not, I don’t know. It’s truly a sad tale.
