A year after Trump-Putin Alaska summit, diplomatic hopes have vanished and fighting intensifies

In August 2025 Donald Trump hosted Vladimir Putin at Alaska’s Elmendorf-Richardson air base, hoping to spark a diplomatic breakthrough in the Ukraine conflict. The summit produced no binding accord, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later said any agreement would have ended the war. Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov described a “compromise proposal” that would limit Russian claims to eastern Donbas in exchange for recognition of new borders and sanctions relief, but Kyiv rejected any land concessions.

Since then, both Moscow and Kyiv have intensified military operations, with civilian casualties surpassing earlier peaks. The United States has shifted focus to the war in Iran, imposed fresh sanctions on Russia, and allowed the New Start arms control treaty to lapse. Recent brief meetings, such as Lavrov’s 30-minute encounter with Rubio in Manila, have failed to generate new peace ideas, and analysts note that the “spirit of Anchorage” has effectively disappeared.