Vladimir Putin told senior officials gathered in the Kremlin on Saturday after his return from Alaska that his meeting with Donald Trump had "brought us closer to the necessary solutions."
Putin emphasized that these options entail Ukraine giving in to the maximalist demands that led to his invasion in 2022. "A settlement must be built on addressing these underlying causes [of the war]," he stated.
Putin's status as a pariah has been altered by the unusual meeting at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, which has also drawn Washington's position on the war closer to Moscow's.
Putin also didn't have to move a single inch.
Trump was issuing ultimatums and threatening repercussions to Putin prior to the summit. Ilya Matveyev, a Russian political scientist in exile who works at the independent Public Sociology Laboratory, stated that there were ultimately no repercussions for Putin's refusal to accept a ceasefire.
"Putin was able to press his military advantage over Ukraine and play for time, which was what he wanted."
Putin brought flattery with him when he landed in the US. He reiterated Trump's repeated assertion that if he, not Joe Biden, had been in charge, Russia would not have invaded. Trump gave a nod.
Putin persuaded Trump that he was cheated out of the 2020 race, Trump later told Fox News anchor Sean Hannity. He made the United States "hot as a pistol," according to the Russian.
Trump's support for Putin during their 2018 Helsinki summit over US intelligence on Moscow's intervention in the 2016 presidential election was another example of Putin's ability to captivate Trump. Trump blasted the "Russia hoax," as he refers to it, on Hannity.
Putin now seems to have swung the US president back into his camp, barely weeks after Trump predicted severe consequences if Russia did not agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine.
According to Samuel Greene, a professor of Russian politics at King's College London, "Putin felt compelled to do something dramatic to flip that script without actually giving anything away, and he seems to have managed to do that."
"A lot of praise was the only gift Putin brought to Anchorage."
As US military planes sailed overhead, Trump posed for photos, gave Putin the red carpet, and shared jokes with him in the presidential limousine.
Moscow celebrated the lavish welcome, while Washington reacted negatively.
Alexander Dugin, a Russian thinker, articulated the feeling of triumph. He posted on Telegram, saying, "Trump has restored [Putin's] status as a world leader who can be dealt with." "This is a starting point, but it won't stop us from fighting the war, of course."
According to analysts, Putin was able to change the focus of the talks such that a ceasefire is now the ultimate objective rather than the beginning.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Saturday that "the best way" was "to go directly to a Peace Agreement.. and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up," endorsing Putin's demand for a total end to the war.
As long as Putin's forces continue to dominate the battlefield, there is little reason for him to accept a truce, according to Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin.
"His primary leverage is the war," he continued. "No one would seek a ceasefire if the war were going well for Ukraine. Therefore, the ceasefire demand from Ukraine and Europe appeared pitiful and unattainable.
During the summit, the Russian leader also made demands that Kyiv will not be able to comply with.
Putin promised Trump that if his demands were fulfilled and Ukraine left the Donbas, the large eastern territory that Russia has attempted to annex since 2014, he would stop the fighting along a large portion of the frontline. Additionally, he has long called on Ukraine to give up its goal of joining NATO.
Putin's demands would essentially eliminate Ukraine's current sovereignty, topple Europe's post-cold war security framework, and give Russia important strategic locations.
Vasily Kashin of Moscow's Higher School of Economics stated, "You cannot talk about ending the war until Russia gets clear guarantees about that, because that was the reason it started." "We know that the moment a ceasefire is agreed upon along the frontline, Russia will no longer take us seriously, which is why we are unable to reach an agreement with them."
Putin's offer, the US informed Ukraine and its European friends, was a compromise. Since he assured Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff in April that he would freeze the entire frontline in exchange for resolving the "root causes," he has actually reinforced his stance.
According to former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, Trump has taken a more pro-Putin stance. Perhaps giving up all of Donbas is merely a maximalist demand made at the start of the talks. Perhaps not, though. Perhaps it's a poison pill that ensures the battle will continue for a very long time," McFaul remarked.
The summit did not yield all of Putin's desired outcomes.
Both parties had discussed possible business deals, and he wished to mend bilateral ties. However, Anton Siluanov and Kirill Dmitriev, two of Russia's senior economic officials who traveled to Alaska with Putin, did not attend the presidents' meeting.
On what to do next, the US and Russia are still at odds. Trump has placed the responsibility of negotiating a settlement with Putin at a future summit on Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine. However, the Kremlin, which has often denied similar requests, claimed that this was not brought up in Alaska.
How Ukraine's western partners will ensure its security in the event that Kyiv is prohibited from joining NATO remains an open question.
"From the Ukrainian point of view, the question is not where the line is, but what ensures their safety following the ceasefire — who will begin firing back at the Russians if the Russians resume fighting?" Greene stated.
According to Kashin, Russia might agree to something akin to NATO's Article 5 mutual defense clause, which would permit western nations to support Ukraine in the event of an assault without sending soldiers or weapons there first.
However, that might be too much for Ukraine and further than Trump is prepared to go.
"Look, I have this relationship with Putin, and he won't invade as long as I'm in office," has been Trump's stance on security promises. "He may think so, but it's not enough in the eyes of the Ukrainians and the Europeans," Greene added.
As long as these issues are not resolved, the war will continue, with Putin gaining another tactical win in Anchorage to further his war objectives.
On his Telegram channel, Russian lawmaker Andrey Klishas stated that the "special military operation's" goals will be accomplished through diplomatic or military means.
Even as the front crumbles and Russian forces capture more and more land, there won't be a "unconditional ceasefire." Everyone must agree to the agenda, which calls for a new framework for both international and European security.
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