There is a suggestion the only winner out of the upcoming US-Russia summit will be Vladimir Putin.
US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart are set to meet in Alaska to discuss what peace could look like in Ukraine, more than three and a half years after Russia’s invasion.
Trump has warned that Russia will face “very severe consequences” if an end to the war is not agreed upon during the Anchorage summit. At the same time, the White House has sought to lower expectations by describing the meetings as a “listening exercise”.
European leaders have thrown their support behind Ukraine, saying Trump must not negotiate away Ukrainian territory. This is after Trump said, “We’re going to get some back, we’re going to get some switched. There will be some swapping of territories, to the betterment of both.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called the meeting a “personal victory” for Putin. He said to reporters after a call with Trump and EU leaders he had told Trump that Putin was trying to “create the impression that Russia can occupy the whole of Ukraine” to gain the upper hand in negotiations. “That is a bluff,” Zelenskyy said.
Kyiv-based Kiwi journalist Thomas Mutch told The Front Page the Alaska summit is likely to give Putin a major symbolic victory.
“Back in 2022, the Kremlin effectively became ostracised by the world. They were banned from sporting events, cultural events, banking systems were cut off, huge sanctions imposed on it, the works.
“No US, European, or Nato diplomats would meet with Russian officials. What being in America and shaking the hands of the US President looks like is a partnership of equals. It looks like you’re welcoming them back into the fold; you’re a respected partner with whom we can do business again.
“That is in itself a major concession in the negotiations already. It also looks bad because Donald Trump and his advisers don’t seem to have a particularly good grasp of the battlefield dynamics or even the geography or culture of the various regions they’re talking about.
“It really does look like we’re back in 1945 and it’s Churchill and Stalin drawing lines over countries, noting down the percentages, and dividing up the world into spheres of influence,” he said.
When it comes to New Zealand’s role in the conflict, Mutch said while it’s limited, more could be done – such as a visit to Ukraine by our Prime Minister.
“All Australian Prime Ministers have done it. All UK Prime Ministers have done it. Joe Biden did it when he was the US President. Ursula von der Leyen, the EU President, [has been] several times.
“New Zealand’s strength is in its soft diplomacy. We’re never going to be a military superpower... But why is New Zealand in no way trying to have some kind of voice in the negotiations? It just seems that the issue has almost entirely disappeared from New Zealand political discourse.
" When Christopher Luxon is on a European tour, why does he not just come to Ukraine? I know the Ukrainians, for instance, have been trying to get a New Zealand Prime Minister for ages, and they’ve had no luck," he said.
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The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
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