If you happen to’re perplexed concerning the goals, habits and consequence 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 most probably no longer by myself.
As summits cross, the assembly broke with many conventions of international relations: It was once last-minute, it gave the impression to 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 educating at Tufts College’s Fletcher Faculty, to assist untangle what came about and what may just occur subsequent.
It was once 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 wonder me or any skilled diplomat that there wasn’t a concrete outcome from the summit.
First, the 2 events, Russia and Ukraine, weren’t asking to come back to the peace desk. Neither considered one of them is in a position but, it appears. 2d, the method was once incorrect. It wasn’t ready neatly sufficient prematurely, on the secretary of state and international minister stage. It wasn’t ready on the group of workers stage.
What was once a little of a wonder was once the final couple days sooner than the summit, the White Space began sending out what I assumed had been roughly sensible alerts. 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 Eu leaders voicing sturdy reinforce for Ukraine and Zelenskyy.
Jordan Pettitt/PA Pictures by way of Getty Pictures
Now, that’s roughly affordable. That will have came about. That was once no longer a horrible plan. The issue was once it didn’t occur. And we don’t know precisely why it didn’t occur.
Studying between the strains, there have been a pair issues. The primary is the Russians, once more, simply weren’t in a position to do that, and so they mentioned, “No ceasefire. We want to go straight to permanent peace talks.”
Ukraine doesn’t need that, and neither do its Eu allies. Why?
While you do a ceasefire, what usually occurs is you allow the fighters in ownership of no matter land their army holds presently. 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 should you cross to an enduring peace plan, which Putin desires, you’ve were given to come to a decision that individuals are going to tug again, proper? In order that’s drawback primary.
Downside quantity two is it’s transparent that Putin is insisting on retaining 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 actually is his final analysis call for, or did he need to blow up those peace talks, and that was once a great way to blow them up? It might be both or each.
Russia has made it transparent that it desires to stay portions of Ukraine, in keeping with historical past and ethnic make-up.
The issue is, the sector neighborhood has made it transparent for many years and a long time and a long time, you don’t get what you wish to have through invading the rustic subsequent door.
Take into account in Gulf Conflict 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 advised nations, “Don’t do this. You do this, it’s going to be bad for you.”
So if Russia learns that it may well 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 every other nation from doing it?
You imply the entire global is observing.
Sure. And the opposite factor the sector is observing 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 in relation to palms, supported Ukraine all the way through this struggle. 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 entire thing more going at the different aspect 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 law enforcement officials evacuate a resident from a residential development in Bilozerske following an airstrike through Russian invading forces on Aug. 17, 2025.
Pierre Crom/Getty Pictures
No less than six Eu leaders are coming to Washington together 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 sooner than the summit, and so they most probably got here away with a powerful influence that the U.S. was once going for a ceasefire. After which, that didn’t occur.
As a substitute, Trump took Putin’s place of going directly to peace talks, no ceasefire.
I don’t suppose they favored 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 spot issues going?
Till and except you pay attention there’s a ceasefire, not anything’s actually came about and the events are proceeding to struggle and kill.
What I’d search for after the Monday conferences is, does Trump keep on 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 roughly swing again against the Eu 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 struggle. He thinks it’s too chaotic. He can’t keep an eye on it. No telling what is going to occur on the different finish of struggle. I believe he sincerely desires for the capturing and the killing to forestall above all else.
The way in which you do that may be a ceasefire. You’ve gotten 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 kids who’ve been taken through Russia – necessarily abducted. Does that input into any of those negotiations?
It must. It was once an apprehension tactic.
This generally is a position the place you’ll make development. 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 simply’re no longer a foul man and you’re roughly fascinated with those talks.
Whether or not they’ll do this or no longer, I don’t know. It’s actually a sad tale.
