“Stomach-wracking. Disgraceful. And ultimately, useless,” wrote the editorial staff of The Kyiv Independent about Friday’s meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to the Ukrainian newspaper, “a bloodthirsty dictator and war criminal was given a royal welcome in the land of the free – while his drones were flying over our cities.”
The Ukrainian newspaper recalled that before the Alaska meeting, Trump had wanted a ceasefire and threatened serious consequences if Vladimir Putin refused. In contrast, they wrote, after the two-and-a-half-hour closed-door meeting, they left without any concrete results, only mentioning"progress" and some kind of "understanding."
According to the editorial, Trump did not achieve his goal, while Putin did: upon entering American soil, he was"no longer considered an international pariah, he was finally accepted and respected by the leader of the free world."
They noted that Donald Trump welcomed the Russian president with a red carpet, handshakes, and military honors, which was in stark contrast to Volodymyr Zelensky's"frigid White House reception," while "the president of Ukraine was publicly shamed and Russia was cherished."
Vladimir Putin doesn't make deals, he takes them away
The article highlighted that the Russian delegation openly mocked when Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in a Soviet T-shirt, and that journalists reported that the Kremlin plane was served chicken Kiev, a reference to the fate of Ukraine. “From the moment he landed on American soil, the Russian dictator was beaming with joy,” they said.
But there’s one lesson Trump still hasn’t learned: The Russian leader doesn’t really make deals—he takes. He took what was offered, and then he took more—he takes until he’s stopped by force. That’s the art of the Russian bargain. Trump doesn’t understand that for Putin, Ukraine isn’t a business deal—it’s a messianic mission. He wants Ukraine to be part of Russia, period. For Putin and his inner circle, Ukraine’s independence is an accident that’s now being fixed
– wrote The Kyiv Independent in its editorial assessment, noting that another gain of the summit for Putin was that it created confusion among US allies, thereby weakening transatlantic unity.
Putin returns from the Alaska summit with a victory – but not the overwhelming victory he could have won. If the two presidents failed to reach an agreement, it means that despite the friendship, Trump did not accept Russia’s absurd demands on Ukraine – which would have effectively meant Kiev’s capitulation
– the Ukrainian newspaper explained, warning that if the US president wants to avoid Russian dominance at the next meeting, he should involve Ukraine as a partner, not as a judge between the two sides. “This is the only way to avoid the leader of the free world once again pampering a bloody dictator – in the name of 340 million Americans,” they wrote, noting that “agreements with Russia do not last long, but the images of the US military honor guard kneeling and rolling out the red carpet for a murderer – they will remain.”
Index reported on the meeting minute by minute, which you can read here.
