Ukraine counts on America before high stakes Putin summit

Zelenskyy urges Washington to push for a just peace as a high stakes Alaska meeting between Trump and Putin unfolds.

Ukraine counts on America before high stakes Putin summit

The Anchorage talks are described as a turning point that will test how far diplomacy can go while Ukraine remains on the sidelines. The summit marks the first in-person meeting between a U.S. president and Vladimir Putin since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. The initial talks will be private between Trump, Putin and their translators, before broader discussions with a Russian delegation that includes Lavrov, Belousov, Siluanov, Ushakov and Dmitriev. The White House has said the U.S. side will include 16 officials, among them Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. European leaders and Zelenskyy were not invited, a detail that has drawn attention amid calls for Kyiv to have a seat at the table.

The arrangement raises questions about who shapes the peace process. Zelenskyy’s emphasis on a trilateral format signals a push for Ukraine to remain a central voice, even as the room for Kyiv in Alaska grows uncertain. Belarusian President Lukashenko’s involvement and Trump’s outreach to him suggest that backroom diplomacy may pull toward broader regional accommodations. The moment tests how much leverage Ukraine actually has when major powers negotiate, and it exposes how quickly strategic priorities can shift with political theater in play. The risk is that important gains for Ukraine get framed as a broader deal rather than a price Kyiv must pay to secure real security guarantees.

Highlights

Diplomacy tests patience as much as it tests alliances.