Global & US Headlines
Trump–Putin Alaska Summit Finalised Without Kyiv Seat at Table
On 13-14 Aug 2025 Washington and Moscow confirmed a one-on-one Trump-Putin meeting at an Alaska air base on 15 Aug to discuss an immediate Ukraine cease-fire, while Ukraine and 31 allies scrambled in parallel calls after learning Zelensky would not be invited.
Focusing Facts
- White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on 13 Aug that Trump and Putin will meet “one-on-one” in Anchorage on 15 Aug; no Ukrainian delegation is invited.
- UK PM Keir Starmer, co-chairing a 31-nation ‘Coalition of the Willing’, held a video conference with Zelensky, Macron, Merz and Trump on 13 Aug to forge a common front before the summit.
- On 14 Aug Zelensky detailed US-made weapons purchases funded by a new $1.5 billion PURL pool (Netherlands $500 m, Denmark-Norway-Sweden $500 m, Germany $500 m).
Context
Great-power conferences that sideline smaller combatants have a long pedigree: Yalta in 1945 redrew Europe over Poles’ heads, and the 1938 Munich pact excluded Czechoslovakia. The Alaska rendez-vous echoes that pattern—and also Reykjavik 1986, when two leaders gambled on personal chemistry to shortcut bureaucracy. The move fits several longer arcs: a return to personalised “strong-man” summitry, Washington’s oscillation between global policeman and transactional deal-maker, and Moscow’s century-old quest for recognition and sanctions relief. Whether anything is signed, the very optics normalise Russia’s seat at the big table after years of isolation, and test Europe’s waning leverage. On a 100-year timeline this moment may mark either the informal birth of a new spheres-of-influence order—or, if it collapses like the 1933 World Disarmament Conference, a footnote that underscores the limits of leader-only diplomacy in a multipolar, digitally-mobilised age.
Perspectives
Right leaning media
e.g., InfoWars, Fox News — Present the Alaska summit as proof of Donald Trump’s deal-making prowess and a path to swift peace, portraying Zelensky as obstinate while suggesting Moscow is ready to negotiate. Pro-Trump alignment incentivises them to glorify his strategy and minimise Russia’s aggression, using charged language (“Dictator”) and selective facts to justify territorial concessions.
Left leaning media
e.g., The Guardian — Warn that a closed-door Trump-Putin meeting could repeat Helsinki, embolden the Kremlin and sacrifice Ukrainian territory, depicting the summit as a diplomatic trap. Strong distrust of Trump colours coverage with worst-case assumptions and frames every outcome as favouring Putin, reflecting liberal hostility to his foreign policy record.
Mainstream UK/US broadcasters
e.g., BBC, ITV, NBC — Highlight allies’ concerns about being sidelined, stress the need for Ukraine’s self-determination, and examine what each leader hopes to gain from the summit. Institutional attachment to Western alliance may overstate European leverage and cast the talks chiefly through multilateral diplomatic lenses, risking underplaying on-the-ground military realities.