Seeing the war criminal Vladimir Putin on the red carpet in the United States was a painful sight, but the meeting served as a step for President Donald Trump to test whether peace could be achieved on Ukraine’s terms.
Dan Rice, an American military expert who serves as president of the American University Kyiv, said this in an exclusive comment to Ukrinform.
“Seeing Vladimir Putin, a murderous dictator and terrorist, receive a red carpet welcome on U.S. soil was a painful sight for all who value freedom. Putin is a genocidal criminal who has waged a brutal war on Ukraine and committed atrocities against civilians. Meeting with him, however, is not capitulation. It is the first step toward testing whether a genuine peace can be achieved on Ukrainian terms,” Rice said.
He stressed that the Alaska meeting should not be equated with the 1938 Munich Conference.
“Yes, Putin is a sick, maniacal, genocidal dictator, just as Hitler was. The difference is that Putin commands thousands of nuclear weapons, which makes him even more dangerous to the world,” Rice said. “Many would prefer to see him face justice at the end of a rope. But the Alaska meeting was not about humiliating him. As Senator Lindsey Graham said, the objective was to create the conditions for President Zelensky to negotiate a peace that preserves Ukraine’s sovereignty.”
Rice described the bilateral meeting on Friday as “largely theater.”
“Putin offered nothing meaningful. President Trump made clear that Ukraine must engage directly and take responsibility for shaping its own future. The mantle is now on Ukraine to determine its destiny. That is not weakness. It is a recognition that Ukraine is the central actor in this war and will decide the terms of its own survival,” he said.
The expert believes the upcoming meeting between Presidents Zelensky and Trump on Monday is a critical next step.
“That encounter could open the door to a trilateral framework where Ukraine, the United States, and Russia sit at the same table. If that happens, Ukraine will negotiate from a position of strength built on its resilience and sacrifice,” Rice said.
He stressed that “there are two forces in the world that continue to be underestimated: Ukraine and Donald Trump.”
“Ukraine has proven its ability to defy expectations and fight against overwhelming odds. Trump has shown that his negotiating style confounds both allies and adversaries. At the end of this war, we believe both Ukraine and America will prevail, and that Putin will face the judgment of history as the murderous dictator he is,” Rice said.
Trump held talks with Putin on Friday in Anchorage, Alaska. U.S. participants included Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. Russian participants included Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Putin’s aide Yury Ushakov.
On Saturday morning, Trump held a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to a European Commission spokesperson, the call also included European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Polish President Karol Nawrocki, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
European leaders later issued a joint statement praising Trump’s efforts to achieve peace and reaffirming the need for “ironclad security guarantees” for Ukraine.
Source: US expert: Alaska meeting was theater, not capitulation
