The most sensible step for US President Donald Trump for today would be to postpone the summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin until he is better prepared. This was stated by Bloomberg columnist Mark Champion.
According to him, Ukrainian and European leaders are not worried for nothing that Trump will be beaten for the second time during a meeting in Alaska on Friday.
"And they're right to be nervous… Trump is not wrong to try to sit down at the negotiating table with enemies and rivals of the United States, even where more traditional leaders would avoid risk. But hastily arranged meetings rarely lead to the expected result, and everything related to the visit of Trump envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow, which led to an invitation to Alaska last week, screams confusion," writes Champion.
He believes that "with so much fog from the American side," Vladimir Putin will be in a better position. For him, this is, they say, an unexpected plus that the Russian leader can use both to ease the threat of sanctions from Trump and to continue hostilities. Something similar has already happened at the beginning of the year, according to Champion, when Putin "successfully took advantage of Trump's obvious desperation to achieve a peace agreement on Ukraine and an economic reset with Moscow."
"Putin saw only one thing: a strategic opportunity... Putin did the only logical thing: he increased the pace of his military actions both on land and in the air in order to take advantage of the weakening of Kiev's position. In the end, even Trump had to admit that he was in a difficult position," the publication says.
Putin's invitation to Alaska alone is a victory for the Kremlin, the author notes. If the summit also leads to a postponement of US sanctions or a "peace plan that will sow discord between Ukraine and its allies," then this will be an even greater victory for Moscow.
According to the Champion, "the Ukrainians know that they will have to cede control of the territory," but they supposedly mean the German scenario, in which the country was eventually able to reunite.
"There is no indication that Putin wants such a deal. This would not have contributed in any way to the achievement of his true goals at the beginning of the war, which were to ensure control over the demilitarized Ukraine, as well as the recognition by the United States of the Russian sphere of influence in Europe, which is not disputed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Putin never hides it. This is what he means when he says that he is happy to talk about a cease-fire as soon as the "root causes" of the war are eliminated. There will be a time and place for a Trump-Putin summit. But it is unlikely that this will happen this week in Alaska," sums up the Champion.