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Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska: Rubio, ‘It’s not a victory for Moscow’

Zelensky and Europe remain out of the face-to-face meeting. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejects criticism: ‘Trump wants to assess Putin by looking him in the eye’

The eagerly awaited mid-August meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska does not represent ‘a victory for Moscow’, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claims. This was clarified by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who in an interview with Sid and Friends in the Morning emphasised: “For President Trump, it is not a concession. After several telephone conversations, he feels the need for a face-to-face meeting to directly assess Putin’s intentions regarding the war in Ukraine.”

Rubio described Trump as ‘an extraordinary negotiator, capable of reading human nature,’ explaining that the goal is to quickly understand whether an agreement is possible: ‘A meeting is needed to make decisions, to look people in the eye. It’s difficult to do that over the phone.’

The summit will take place at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, near Anchorage, chosen to ensure maximum security and to manage the US president’s trip to the Arctic state in one day. However, according to CNN, the White House would have preferred to avoid the image of the Russian leader being welcomed at an American military installation.

Meanwhile, Zelensky will be in Berlin today to participate, together with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, in a video conference with the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Poland, Finland, the EU and NATO. Trump and Vice President JD Vance will only join in the second part of the meeting, convened to send a signal of European unity on the eve of the meeting in Alaska, from which both Kiev and European partners have been excluded.

According to Bild sources, the summit will serve to discuss how to respond to Putin’s territorial claims and what security guarantees can be put on the table for Ukraine.

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