Nearly a month has passed since the Trump–Putin meeting in Alaska on Ukraine, along with the illusions the American President fostered about decisive breakthroughs. Trump even proclaimed that a direct meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents was imminent, though, as quickly became clear, he had not even secured Moscow’s consent.
A month on, it has become evident that the Alaska meeting was little more than political theater, staged by both leaders to serve their own interests.
Trump aimed to showcase supposed progress in his so-called peace efforts on Ukraine, masking his spectacular failure to end the war within a month as he had boastfully promised before his election, while also seeking lucrative trade deals with Putin. Putin, for his part, used Trump to ease his way out of the international isolation that followed the invasion of Ukraine, while buying precious time to press on with and expand his military campaign, seizing as much territory as possible.
The evidence is stark: since the Alaska meeting, Russian attacks have not subsided but instead intensified, spreading beyond contested regions to strike cities and areas hundreds of kilometers from the front lines. Major urban centres, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and even parts of western Ukraine are bombarded nightly by Russian drones and missiles, leaving dozens of civilians, including children, dead in their homes and beds.
The much-hyped Alaska meeting not only failed to give diplomacy any momentum but did nothing to restrain Putin. On the contrary, it left him even more aggressive, brazen, and ruthless.
So much so that his sights have now turned to Ukraine’s neighbor, Poland. The wave of Russian drones that struck Polish territory on Tuesday night was no accident, nor a misfire. It was a deliberate message to Ukraine, to Poland, to neighboring European states, and to NATO, that the ‘Russian killing hand’ can and will reach much further. The end of the war in Ukraine is nowhere in sight, and Europe’s security is now openly under threat from Moscow.