Pursuing peace. That was the motto of the meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on Friday, August 15, in Anchorage, Alaska, intended to secure a ceasefire on the ground in Ukraine and pave the way for a meeting between the US president and his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, including Volodymyr Zelensky.
Many feared that this summit would become another Munich, with the United States abandoning Ukraine, attacked but not invited to the talks, to Russia – just as Czechoslovakia was handed over to Adolf Hitler in 1938. Others warned of another Yalta, the February 1945 conference that divided Europe between Joseph Stalin and the Anglo-Americans. In reality, no one knows what was negotiated in Anchorage on Friday, except that the summit was an undeniable failure for Trump.
Before the meeting, the US president reiterated his demand: “I want to see a ceasefire rapidly. I don’t know it’s going to be today, but I’m not going to be happy if it’s not today (…) I want the killing to stop. I’m here to stop the killing.” Nothing of the sort was announced. No agreement was detailed, even if it cannot be ruled out that negotiations may have progressed. In the short term, peace will have to wait.
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