By Askold Lozynskyj
I could not imagine a more substance depleted and yet very revealing summit than Alaska 2025. The sycophancy was dramatic and the stakes were monumental because hundreds of thousands of human lives were at stake.
A convicted felon, the leader of a country once at the very pinnacle of the Free World was rehabilitating an international war criminal charged with indiscriminate murder of civilians and the kidnapping of children. Trump applauded Putin to commence the farce and concluded the travesty by pandering to his every word. He gave the mass murderer everything he wanted and needed for rehabilitation. Heretofore he had been an isolated pariah. The democratic world received nothing. There was no ceasefire. Russia continued to bomb Ukraine overnight, Friday into Saturday.
Putin knew exactly what to say. He spoke of the root cause of the conflict, blaming the West, referred to Ukrainians as brothers with a shared history, once again preaching an alternative history, then commended Trump by repeating Trump’s nonsense that the conflict would not have arisen had Trump been president, thereby once impugning the West of starting the aggression. Trump ate it up and said nothing. This was a lead performance by Putin with Trump playing a supporting role.
Apparently Ukraine’s President Zelensky will meet at the White House with Trump this coming week, to be followed by a purported trilateral meeting somewhere in Europe, in a venue hospitable to the international war criminal. Hopefully the White House meeting will not be another ambush like the Oval Office in February. The trilateral one will be one sided since it will feature unequal numbers in favor of Russia. Ukraine will be unduly pressured. Trump will side with the enemy, except that now Russia and Putin have become strange allies of Trump and America.
In an interview with his uneducated lackey Sean Hannity, Trump stated that on a scale of one to ten the Summit was a ten. He immediately added that this referred to the congeniality, thereby acknowledging that as to substance it was clearly a zero.
The Fox News sycophants initially seemed critical since they could not point to a single agreement reached. But then the word came down and the spin ensued. Trump’s former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in his interview on Fox attempted analysis rather than spin. But he could not point to a single achievement, so at the end the word came down and Pompeo lauded his ex boss.
Why was this bad for Ukraine? Because Ukraine needs a ceasefire and in the alternative it needs the secondary sanctions on Russia promised by Trump three weeks ago and long overdue. A significantly sanctioned Russia on energy can become a bankrupt one without the ability to pay not only its soldiers but also its police who are keeping Putin in power.
Why was this sad for America? Because prior to the Summit, Trump held a long distance meeting with European allies including President Zelensky. The result of that meeting was an apparent assurance by Trump that a ceasefire was his mission in Alaska and if Putin refused the meeting would be cut short. No ceasefire was agreed to, but Trump did not walk out. Now he is saying that a long term settlement is better than short term ceasefire, precisely what Putin had been saying all along in order to bomb, destroy and kill as much as he could and attempt to garner additional territory.
Trump also assured the Europeans that he would not discuss territorial swapping since that was entirely within the purview of Ukraine. Now he admits that territorial swapping was discussed and that Ukraine has to agree.
At the podia stood two endemically lying criminals essentially affable towards each other and looking forward to a productive relationship, moral considerations and the democratic world be damned. They did not take any questions because it’s more difficult to maintain your lying composure when you are being cross examined by the press.
True Putin does not have this problem in Russia because there is no free press. Unfortunately, one of the speakers was the President of America, once a beacon of hope and a paragon for democratic principles and one nation under God. God was entirely absent from that room.
President Zelensky has options however. Without offending the evil lying clown in the White House Ukraine must stay the course with Europe entirely on Ukraine’s side. Every so often something helpful may come from this White House and long term Ukraine and a real America could be natural allies once again. The next two events will be Zelensky’s second ambush at the White House and a further ambush somewhere in Europe if the trilateral meeting actually develops. Don’t hold your breath!
August 16, 2025
