Trump-Putin summit unlikely to reach acceptable | Political News

President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are set to meet on Friday in Alaska to focus on a potential end to the over three-year battle between Russia and Ukraine.

While Trump said on Monday that he’d have the option to really feel whether or not Putin would truly be open to ending the conflict, saying, “At the end of that meeting, probably the first two minutes, I’ll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made,” mutiple overseas coverage specialists consider the probabilities of a decision are unlikely.

While Ukraine has been clear about its settlement to an unconditional ceasefire, there are growing issues that Russia might not even agree on a peace deal.

A source from the Ukrainian President’s Office told The Kyiv Independent that Putin is anticipated to request that Kyiv withdraw its troopers from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts at the assembly, which could lead on to Russia withdrawing troops from Kharkiv and Sumy oblasts.

The source detailed that if Putin proposes this, it will be “outright rejected” by Ukraine.

A overseas coverage professional at Brookings Institution, Daniel Hamilton, told the outlet that “extreme caution is warranted about any Putin-Trump meeting, which is unlikely to produce anything remotely acceptable to Ukraine.”

“Faced with Trump’s deadline, Putin is again playing for time, and is likely to use a meeting to sway Trump to Russian views,” he said. “The assembly may end result in another delay in U.S. sanctions on Russia, and additional hesitations by Trump to offer additional help for Ukraine.”

A Russia expert at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Ryhor Nizhnikau, told the outlet that the meeting will only “delay the end of the war.”

“Energy sanctions on China and India for shopping for Russia‘s oil and, more importantly, considerably rising army help to Ukraine are the best accessible instruments against Russia at the Western disposal,” he told the Kyiv Independent.

“If Trump desires to use the summit with Putin to keep away from conserving his phrase on the ultimatum (for Russia to agree on a ceasefire), that is dangerous news. It will only additional embolden Moscow and Beijing to pursue their current course of motion.”

He added that by agreeing to the meeting, Putin is simply looking to buy more time for himself and for Trump, “potentially also making Trump a favor of finding a way to avoid fulfilling his ultimatum threats.”

“I do not expect any breakthrough on the ceasefire,” he told the Kyiv Independent.

“There is the same major question to ask: has Putin’s stance on the war changed? The answer is no; nothing changed, and he wants to continue the war. Putin’s plan is to buy a bit more time and ideally again shift at least some blame back on Ukraine, which would permit him to avoid any serious harshening of the U.S. approach towards Russia.”