United States President Donald Trump set the lowest possible bar for his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, declaring that “probably in the first two minutes I’ll know exactly whether or not a deal can get done”, and insisting he was ready to walk away from the talks
Trump sets a low bar for high-stakes summit and avoids key issues for Kyiv
By David E. Sanger
New York Times·
6 mins to read
Subscribe to listen
Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?
Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
A Ukrainian soldier in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. Photo / David Guttenfelder, The New York Times
Analysis by David E. Sanger
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
He added, “I may leave and say good luck, and that’ll be the end.”
Trump’s own description of his goals for the negotiation, the most high-stakes international meeting yet in his second term, were telling — as much for what he omitted as for what he included.
And that is what worries both the Ukrainians and Washington’s European allies, who have committed to keep arming Ukraine no matter the outcome in Anchorage.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
What wasn’t mentioned
Ceasefire
Zelenskyy, who has not been invited to join the talks in Alaska, has said that any agreement must start with a some kind of truce or ceasefire so that negotiations were not being conducted amid continued air attacks and territorial grabs. Trump has not stipulated that a truce must come first.
Guarantees
During his hour-long news conference, he never once mentioned security guarantees for Ukraine, intended to assure that Putin does not exploit a break in the fighting or new territorial gains as his moment to regroup, rearm and resume his effort to seize the whole country.
Support
Nor did Trump commit to making sure that Ukraine has the arms, intelligence and co-operation it needs to defend its territory and deter Russia from future attacks. His Vice-President, JD Vance, a longtime critic of American aid to Ukraine, was quite explicit during an appearance on Fox News. “We’re done with the funding of the Ukraine war business,” he said, insisting that the only way American arms would make it into Ukrainian hands would be if European allies bought and transferred them.
A sense of haste
Trump’s comments came as the White House scrambled to make arrangements for one of the most hastily assembled summits of recent times.
Usually, such sessions are preceded by detailed advance negotiations, with prearranged agreements and communiqués.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Trump seemed to suggest that he was walking into this discussion with none of those, though European officials say they have seen evidence that, at lower levels, Russian and American officials are talking.
Adding to the sense of haste, the White House has still not said where, exactly, the meeting will be held, how long it is expected to last or whether at the end Trump will preside over a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, two avowed enemies.
Influencing Trump
The risk now, as even some of Trump’s Republican allies have conceded, is that Putin will see an opportunity to flatter Trump, play for time, and perhaps win him over to the Russian leader’s own interpretation of events.
Recent history suggests that Trump is inclined to accept Putin’s version of reality.
This year he suggested that Ukraine was responsible for the invasion of its own territory, and he refused to join America’s traditional Western allies in voting for a United Nations resolution condemning Russia’s aggression.
Earlier this week, Zelenskyy worried aloud that Trump could be easily “deceived”.
For that reason, European and Nato officials — who mollified Trump at the alliance’s summit in the Netherlands in June by pledging to spend 3.5% of their gross domestic product on defence over the next decade — are now carefully trying to hedge him in.
They arranged a video call for tomorrow with Trump, aware that they will not be in the room in Alaska, so their power is limited to persuading him beforehand and risking his wrath by dissenting later.
One of the most explicit warnings to Trump came from the Secretary-General of Nato, Mark Rutte, a former Netherlands Prime Minister who has invested heavily in developing a relationship with the President and devised the Nato summit to minimise the chances he would disrupt it.
His bet paid off, and Trump sang the alliance’s praises, rather than declare that it was “obsolete”, as he did in his first term.
Rutte’s guardrails
But this week, Rutte was clearly drawing some guardrails for the coming negotiation.
“Next Friday will be important because it will be about testing Putin, how serious he is on bringing this terrible war to an end,” Rutte said on ABC.
“When it comes to full-scale negotiations, and let’s hope that Friday will be an important step in that process”, territory will be only one issue, he said.
“It will be, of course, about security guarantees, but also about the absolute need to acknowledge that Ukraine decides on its own future, that Ukraine has to be a sovereign nation, deciding on its own geopolitical future — of course having no limitations to its own military troop levels,” Rutte said.
“And for Nato, to have no limitations on our presence on the eastern flank.”
The dealmaker
Trump said none of that in his comments in the White House briefing room yesterday. But he made it clear that striking an agreement was the key.
“I make deals,” he said.
Trump has made no secret of his desire to win a Nobel Peace Prize, and has claimed that he was the driving force in recent ceasefires or peace accords in disputes between India and Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Armenia, and other regional conflicts.
“What’s the definition of a good deal?” Trump asked reporters.
“I’ll tell you after I hear what the deal is, because there could be many definitions.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: David E. Sanger
Photograph by: David Guttenfelder
©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES