Europe left out in the cold as Trump plans to offer Putin deal on Ukraine

This week's summit in Alaska is fuelling concerns the US president will offer sweeping concessions to the Russian leader and sideline Kyiv

- Hugh Tomlinson

For months, European leaders worked tirelessly to bring Donald Trump round to their position on Ukraine and make him see that Vladimir Putin is not serious about peace.

By late July those efforts seemed to bear fruit with the US president expressing frustration towards Moscow and threatening new sanctions on Russia should a ceasefire deal not be reached within days.

Now, Europe is in danger of being left out in the cold again.

Hours after Trump's peace envoy, Steve Witkoff, visited Moscow on Wednesday, the US president announced he would meet Putin in Alaska, warning that Ukraine would have to surrender territory to reach a ceasefire deal that could resolve the three-and-a half-year conflict.

"We're going to get some back, and we're going to get some switched," Trump said at the White House on Friday. "There'll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both."

The Alaska summit will be the first between a US president and Putin since he launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and a major victory for the Russian president restoring him to the global stage on equal footing with Trump after years in isolation from the international community.