«Putin is talking about the same war goals. I don’t expect any breakthrough in Alaska. So far we’ve seen that Putin’s goal with this summit, aside from escaping isolation, is to break the coordination between the U.S. and Europe»

Leo Litra, Senior Research Fellow at the New Europe Center, commented for BBC News on the oncoming meeting of Presidents Trump and Putin.

The meeting in Alaska is a diplomatic gift for Putin. He has been contained for more than three years since the large-scale war started. And now he’s invited, so he’s avoiding the isolation he has been put into by the West for some time.

The message which Mr. Trump is giving to the world is that you can break the rules but you still can force the discussion which is against the principle that the West subscribed to earlier. Especially this is worrying since only a week ago, President Putin mentioned that his war goals remain the same by which he started the war – maximalist goals.

I think that nobody is expecting a genuine, good faith negotiation process in Alaska. But at the same time, it serves the interest of Putin of getting out of isolation, and changing basically the rules and the principles that were agreed by the West. The negotiation process will only start if there is a meaningful cease fire takes place.

The fact that Putin is making the demands, which are unacceptable for Ukraine and for the rest of Europe, would make Ukraine look like the party which is not interested in making peace on Putin’s terms. So I think that there won’t be any meaningful result of the summit, but overall, I would say that the principles and the position of the West would become more vulnerable after this meeting.

It is a sort of mistake from the side of the U.S. administration to go into this meeting without a clear strategy of what they can get in the end. President Zelensky made it quite clear that he’s not going to accept any land swap. And then what the U.S. president is going to propose to President Putin, it’s unclear.