The Trump-Putin summit in Anchorage wasn’t just another diplomatic sideshow; it was a neon-lit reminder that Volodymyr Zelensky is playing poker with a low pair of threes and a grin that’s wearing thin within the Trump admin.
For a guy who needs America more than America needs him, he’s sure acting like a man with leverage.
Reality Check
Since the Maidan Revolution in 2014, chunks of eastern Ukraine have been in a state of frozen conflict — Russian-backed separatists dug in, borders redrawn in pencil but treated like permanent ink. Zelensky’s position? No land for peace, no matter how many lives or billions it costs. It’s a noble stance in a history book, but in the real world, that hill is looking less like sacred ground and more like the place you get surrounded.
Trump’s Alaska sit-down with Putin — without Ukraine in the room — was the kind of slap you hear from space. And yet, the irony is that Zelensky still can’t figure out how to connect with Trump on any meaningful level.
Whether it’s Trump’s transactional worldview or Zelensky’s Churchill cosplay, they talk past each other like drunks arguing in different languages.
Europe?
Forget it.
The EU can talk sanctions and solidarity until their espresso machines rust, but when it comes to putting serious defense tech or cash on the table, they fold faster than a cheap camping chair.
That leaves one player with the chips to keep Kyiv in the game, and it’s not the EU or the UK. It’s Washington.
The summit’s optics are brutal: Putin smirking like a fox in a henhouse, Trump working the room like a Vegas pit boss, and Zelensky nowhere to be found. Not because he didn’t want to be there, but because the guest list told the truth, the U.S. is keeping its options open, and Ukraine’s stubborn “all or nothing” stance is starting to wear thin with the one ally who matters.
Zelensky would be wise to repair his relationship with Trump or find himself forced out of the Presidency he’s clinging to far past the regular election cycle.
Anchorage may have been the backdrop, but the real stage is the battlefield in eastern Ukraine, and the clock is ticking.
Without a shift in strategy, Zelensky risks running out of ammunition in more ways than one. Because here’s the cold math: America can walk away and survive just fine. Ukraine? Not so much.