Well that was just about the most vomit-inducing episode in all the tawdry history of international diplomacy. It made the gorge rise to see Putin welcomed on to American soil.
It was emetic to see him applauded on the red carpet.
It was nauseating to watch his Gollum-like smirk as he became one of the only world leaders I can think of to be invited to ride in the back of the presidential limo.
It was positively chunderous to hear him given an American platform for his lies about the causes of the war in Ukraine – a country that in 2014, when he first attacked it, posed no threat whatever to Russia.
As I listened to the unctuous and wearisome predictability with which he tried both to flatter and discreetly humiliate Donald Trump, I wanted to gag. I bet you did, too – and most of us are not even Ukrainian.
Imagine how it felt to be one of those embattled heroes in a dug-out near Pokrovsk, fighting for your country’s freedom, and to hear the President of the United States – the ex officio team captain of the Free World – refer to Vladimir Putin as ‘the boss’.
Retch.
Think of the tens of thousands of Ukrainian widows and orphans. Think of the maimed and mutilated; think of the Ukrainian civilians living in daily and nightly terror of Putin’s bombs and missiles – still raining down, even though the so-called negotiations were taking place in Alaska.
Donald Trump greets Vladimir Putin as he arrives in Alaska yesterday
Ask yourself how those people felt to hear the US President – in some ways the world’s ultimate guarantor of freedom and democracy – refer to the ‘fantastic relationship’ he has with Putin, a dictator who has been torturing their country for three-and-a-half years.
It was a disgusting moment because Putin is a war criminal, whose continual lies, dissimulation and aggression are directly analogous to Hitler.
You sometimes hear that the White House’s objective is to ‘stop the death’, or ‘stop the killing’ in Ukraine, as though there were faults on both sides. What rubbish.
The blood of every Russian who has died in this conflict is on Putin’s hands. The blood of every Ukrainian who has died is on Putin’s hands.
All the carnage and all the tragedy in Ukraine is the fault of one man – because right now there would be no war, there would be no bloodshed, there would be no disaster, if it were not for the continuing arrogance, folly and fundamental miscalculation of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
That was why it was so hard to stomach the sight of Putin preening at the Alaska summit. That was why the event felt so objectionable.
And yet like so many of the most objectionable pieces of historic diplomacy, that meeting was also, of course, justifiable and even essential.
Puke-making though it was, Trump was right to try. He was right to meet Putin, because if millions of Ukrainians were watching with horror at the red-carpet rehabilitation of the Russian tyrant, they were also watching with hope.
They were hoping that maybe, just maybe, this fabled New York deal-maker could produce a solution that would end the war – but still salvage what they want and need, namely the freedom, sovereignty and independence of their country.
Putin spoke at a press conference in Alaska after a meeting with Trump to discuss the war in Ukraine
Trump and Putin share a laugh in the presidential car ahead of the summit in Alaska
Donald Trump was and is right to take the risk, because he knows that one day Putin will indeed make a deal. His position in Moscow is far weaker than it appears.
The Russian economy is starting to creak under the burden of war. Unemployment is climbing, and so are inflation and interest rates.
Putin has seen one of his biggest oil customers – India – suddenly and unexpectedly hit by Trump’s secondary sanctions, with Bloomberg reporting signs that Indian buyers of hydrocarbons are already switching away from Russia.
Most important of all, Putin still cannot and will not crush the spirit of Ukrainian resistance. Yes, times are very tough for Ukrainian fighters and, yes, with titanic effort and expense Putin has managed to make some small gains in the east – theatrically designed to coincide with the Alaska summit.
But those advances have again been contained by the Ukrainians and, as of now – mid-August – the much-vaunted vast Russian summer offensive of 2025 has yet to materialise, let alone succeed.
Trump has been 100 per cent right to sense a chance for peace, and right to want to make peace. He is one of those who thinks – with Benjamin Franklin – that there never was a good war or a bad peace, and he is right there, too.
But it was clear to observers of this summit – and I believe it was pretty clear to the American negotiators in the room – that Putin does not want peace, certainly not on terms that either the US or Ukraine could accept.
Anyone who has worked with Trump, and knows his moods, could tell that this meeting was not a success. The advertised lunch did not take place.
There was none of the predicted discussion of any mouth-watering new commercial partnership between the US and Russia, or Arctic collaboration. Instead, the summit ended abruptly and several hours prematurely with an entirely vacuous press conference at which Trump – extraordinarily – did not take questions from the Press.
The meeting was only valuable in this sense: that in Alaska Trump came face to face with the reality.
Putin fundamentally wants to control Ukraine, and to make it once again a vassal state of Moscow.
The Ukrainians fundamentally want to be free – and in that desire they have the long-term support of other Western democracies, and, crucially, of Trump himself, and indeed of Melania Trump, the First Lady, who is playing an increasing role in shaping her husband’s thinking.
Trump the realtor has discovered that this isn’t about real estate. This isn’t about geography or territory. This is about destiny.
The aftermath of a Russian drone strike in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine earlier this month
It’s about the right of Ukrainians to choose their own destiny as a free and independent European nation. That means the war won’t end until Putin accepts the truth: that he has lost the battle for the destiny of Ukraine.
It’s only when that happens – when Putin accepts a spiritual truth that is obvious to anyone who visits Ukraine – that we will have peace.
Frankly, I doubt if Donald Trump will much enjoy the global headlines today. I don’t think he will enjoy the idea that Putin has bested him, that Trump rolled out the red carpet for a pariah – and expended a lot of political capital – and got nothing in return.
The failure in Alaska will harden what I believe is his growing conviction – that the only way to fix this is now to intensify the pressure on Putin.
Nobody really expected the US president to go ahead and put secondary sanctions on countries that have continued to buy Russian oil and gas – and yet he did it.
What about Britain? What about Europe? When are we going to have the courage to do the same? This is our continent. We continually demand leadership from America – and yet when we get that leadership we don’t even have the guts to follow suit.
One day this war will end with a peace that protects Ukrainian freedom; but as Trump said in Alaska, the Europeans – led by Britain – will have to step up.
