Keystone-SDA
A handshake before locking up for a historic summit: Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin found themselves in Alaska on Friday, to perhaps seal the fate of Ukraine.
(Keystone-ATS) The American president offered his Russian counterpart a carefully choreographed return to the diplomatic scene, more than three years after the Russian invasion, which triggered the bloodiest conflict in Europe since the Second World War.
Arrived the first on the military base of Elmendorf-Richardson, Donald Trump waited for his Russian counterpart to advance to him on the Tarmac.
The two leaders exchanged a handshake and kindness.
Then they walked along a red carpet bordered by soldiers in great outfit before posing for photographers.
Rare thing, Vladimir Putin then got into Donald Trump’s armored car to reach the place of their meeting.
No tête-à-tête
Which will not be held on a head, as initially planned, but with two advisers on both sides.
For Donald Trump, it will be Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, special emissary to Russia.
Vladimir Putin, of which it is the first trip to the West since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, is accompanied by the chief of diplomacy Sergei Lavrov and Iouri Ouchakov, his diplomatic advisor.
What change the psychological dynamics of this meeting, of which Ukraine and Europeans fear above all that it does not allow Vladimir Putin to manipulate his American counterpart.
“Five minutes”
First concerned but great absent from this meeting, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky declared “counting” on Donald Trump to put an end to the conflict.
The Russian soldiers “continue to kill the day of negotiations,” he deplored, while the Ukrainian army announced on Friday that it had taken up six villages of which Russian units had taken hold in recent days, during a particularly rapid advance.
Donald Trump boasted of knowing in “five minutes” maximum if his first meeting in person since 2019 with the Kremlin master would be a fiasco.
If everything goes well, the American president, who dreams of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, assures that “this meeting will open the way to another”, three, with Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Work for peace”
The choice of Alaska is full of symbols.
This vast territory was sold by Russia to the United States in the 19th century. He was then an outpost of the Cold War, when America and the Soviet Union stood on both sides of the Bering Strait.
The Ukrainian President and European leaders will have to wait until the unpredictable American president, as he committed, informs them of the content of his interview.
Vladimir Putin “today has the opportunity to accept a ceasefire” in Ukraine, said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The first meeting will be followed by a work meal, with more ministers and advisers.
The Russian and American presidents will then give a press conference for journalists from around the world, in front of a blue background bearing the inscription “Pursuing Peace” (“Work for peace”).
“Givenant”
This peace seems very distant, as the positions of the two belligerents seem to be irreconcilable.
Russia claims that Ukraine gives it four partially occupied regions (Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporijjia and Kherson), in addition to the Crimea annexed in 2014, and that it renounces Western arms deliveries and any membership in NATO.
It is unacceptable for kyiv, who wants an unconditional and immediate ceasefire, as well as future security guarantees.
Donald Trump, who since the Russian invasion of Ukraine returns back to back the two belligerents, speaks of “giving-and” in terms of territorial concessions.
If the Russian president and the American president have a common obsession, that of never appearing in a position of weakness, their approaches to international power relations are very different.
For Donald Trump, a former real estate promoter who has become famous thanks to a reality show, everything is a matter of rapid negotiations, a haggle, to arrive at a “deal” necessarily advantageous for him.
Where Vladimir Putin, former KGB formed in psychological warfare, reason in the long term, evoking the historical destiny of a “great Russia” which he would like to reconstruct.
“I’m not going to be happy if there is no cease-fire today,” said Donald Trump during the flight to Alaska. He even said he was ready to abruptly leave the discussion table.