Donald Trump’s summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday could be a decisive moment for both the war in Ukraine and the U.S. leader’s anomalous relationship with his Russian counterpart.
Trump has long boasted that he’s gotten along well with Putin and spoken admiringly of him, even praising him as “pretty smart” for invading Ukraine. But in recent months, he’s expressed frustrations with Putin and threatened more sanctions on his country.
At the same time, Trump has offered conflicting messages about his expectations for the summit. He has called it “really a feel-out meeting” to gauge Putin’s openness to a ceasefire but also warned of “very severe consequences” if Putin doesn’t agree to end the war.
For Putin, Friday’s meeting is a chance to repair his relationship with Trump and unlace the West’s isolation of his country following its invasion of Ukraine 3 1/2 years ago. He’s been open about his desire to rebuild U.S.-Russia relations now that Trump is back in the White House.
The White House has dismissed any suggestion that Trump’s agreeing to sit down with Putin is a win for the Russian leader. But critics have suggested that the meeting gives Putin an opportunity to get in Trump’s ear to the detriment of Ukraine, whose leader was excluded from the summit.
“I think this is a colossal mistake. You don’t need to invite Putin onto U.S. soil to hear what we already know he wants,” said Ian Kelly, a retired career foreign service officer who served as the U.S. ambassador to Georgia during the Obama and first Trump administrations.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a longtime Russia hawk and close ally of Trump’s, expressed optimism for the summit.
“I have every confidence in the world that the President is going to go to meet Putin from a position of strength, that he’s going to look out for Europe and Ukrainian needs to end this war honorably,” Graham wrote on social media.
