Bogdan Frolov07:46, 10.08.25

For Putin, this is an opportunity not only to end the war in Ukraine on his own terms, but also to split the Western security alliance.

As recently as late July, Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin was on the verge of “losing” US President Donald Trump , the only Western leader who might have been willing to help him achieve his goal in Ukraine and realize his long-standing goal of destroying the European security system, The New York Times writes .

The article said that after months of trying to persuade Putin to end the war, Trump had grown tired of the futile calls and negotiations and began issuing ultimatums. Even worse for Putin, Trump appeared to have mended fences with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, despite a spat in the Oval Office earlier this year.

“It was not clear whether Trump would be able or willing to follow through on his threats to impose tough tariffs on countries buying Russian oil, or how such measures would actually impact Moscow. But the deadline Trump gave Putin to end the war was rapidly approaching, foreshadowing a new rift between the White House and the Kremlin,” the media outlet writes.

So Putin changed his tactics slightly.

What is Russia’s new tactic?

Despite Russian officials’ previous refusals to negotiate territorial issues in the war with Ukraine, Putin left Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff with the impression at his latest meeting in the Kremlin that Russia was now prepared to discuss land deals.

“We’ll get some things back and we’ll swap some things. There will be a swap of territory for the benefit of both sides,” Trump said after the meeting between Whitkoff and Putin.

Journalists say that by speaking the language Trump understands — the language of real estate — Putin has achieved what he has been seeking since January: a face-to-face meeting with the U.S. leader without Zelensky to lay out his case and make a deal.

“It’s been a very good week for Putin. He’s taken himself out of a position of great vulnerability. He’s redirected the whole process into a direction that is more or less in his interests,” said Sam Green, a professor of Russian politics at King’s College London. Meanwhile, tensions between Washington and Kiev have flared again.

The situation between the USA and Ukraine

Zelensky said after Trump’s statements that the Ukrainian Constitution does not allow Kyiv to “give away land.” The American leader initially told European officials that the meeting with Putin would be followed by a trilateral summit involving both Putin and Zelensky. But the Kremlin quickly said no such promises were made. And the White House continued preparations for the meeting in Alaska anyway.

Few analysts believe that the Russian leader will be ready to end the war with just a “land deal.”

Putin made it clear that, among other things, he wants a formal promise that Ukraine will not join NATO or other Western military alliances, will not host Western troops on its territory, and will not be able to build a military capability that would threaten Russia – that is, will remain forever vulnerable, the media writes.

“The main thing for Russia is dominance,” Green emphasized.

Putin’s Preparations for Meeting with Trump

It is reported that one of the scenarios that Putin will bring to Alaska will be a “good deal” with Trump that the US President will be able to impose on Ukraine, or a good deal with Trump that Zelensky will refuse to accept, as a result of which the US will withdraw support for Ukraine.

The third option, experts say, is to continue the current course for another 12 to 18 months, assuming that Ukraine will run out of personnel faster than the Russian military economy will run out of resources.

Putin understands that Trump is willing to offer something few American leaders would, and that it could help Russia split Ukraine and weaken the Western alliance.

“If we can get Trump to recognize Russia’s claims to the lion’s share of the captured territories, knowing that the Ukrainians and Europeans will not agree with this, this will drive a wedge between the United States and Europe in the long term,” Green said.

But the article also says that, even with all the desire, Putin will not stop the war if the price for it is the recognition of a sovereign Ukraine with a strong army, allied with the West and capable of producing its own weapons.

Stefan Meister, an analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations, noted that the leaders will come to the summit with different goals: Trump wants to end the war, while Putin wants to strategically reorient Russia.

“For Putin, this is really about bigger goals. It’s about his legacy. It’s about where Russia will be after this war. It’s much more fundamental. It creates a different willingness to bear costs,” Meister said. For Ukraine, he said, it would be a disaster if Zelensky wasn’t “in the room” at that point.

(C)UNIAN 2025