Wall Street Journal Correspondent Delivers Brutal Summary of Trump-Putin Summit
Credit: Dmitry Azarov/Kommersant Photo/Sipa USA(Sipa via AP Images)
Wall Street Journal chief foreign affairs correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov unloaded a scathing summary of President Donald Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin as he mocked the White House’s pivot on ceasefire demands.
Despite Ukraine’s push for a ceasefire as a key precursor to long term peace negotiations, Trump abruptly abandoned that position and talk of sanctions against Russia after his meeting with Putin.
Posting on Truth Social after the Friday meeting the president said that “the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.”
Sharing a screengrab of Trump’s post-summit social media take, Trofimov tweeted out a mocking skit that had Putin resisting Trump’s threats before the president finally just gives up, while calling the meeting a “very successful day”:
Trump: Vladimir, stop the killing!
Putin: Nyet!
Trump: I want a ceasefire.
Putin: Nyet!
Trump: Ceasefire in two weeks or I will impose sanctions!
Putin: Let’s meet.
Trump: Ok, no sanctions until the meeting.
Putin in Alaska: Nyet. No ceasefire. I still have the same demands as in 2022.
Trump: Oh well, let’s forget about a ceasefire — or sanctions. It was a great and very successful day.
Putin: 😎
For Putin, however, a key aim for any peace agreement would be the handing over of the Donbas region of Ukraine, including areas not occupied by his military. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pushed against this, hence his desire that a ceasefire be agreed before negotiations take place.
As the killing continues, Zelensky will be under increasing pressure to concede territory.
(Truth Social screenshot)
In a statement posted to X on Saturday, Zelensky warned that abandonment of ceasefire demands “complicates” talks ahead of a Monday visit to the White House and a possible trilateral meeting with Trump and Putin, potentially on August 22.
