In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explain the Alaska Fiasco and how it marks the peak of Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine for the past two years. What was sold as “peace talks” turned into an embarrassing spectacle of weakness, humiliation, empty promises, and photo-ops that handed Putin exactly what he wanted.

Let’s start with the obvious: Trump desperately wants the shining gold medal of the Nobel Peace Prize, mainly because Obama got one. That’s why he’s now LARPing as a “peace maker” in every conflict: Israel-Gaza, Azerbaijan-Armenia, India-Pakistan, and of course Ukraine-Russia.

Another theory is that Putin holds kompromat — compromising material such as videos or documents — that would put Trump in an extremely bad light. Some have suggested it could be tied to the Epstein files or Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

Former KGB chief of Kazakhstan Alnur Mussayev even claimed that Trump was recruited by the Soviet Union in 1987 under the codename “Krasnov.” No solid evidence has ever surfaced, but Trump’s actions do look odd given Russia’s relatively limited global influence and power.

The setup for the Alaska Summit was disastrous from the start. Trump’s favorite real estate agent, Steven Witkoff, went to Moscow with no expertise and not even a proper translator, only to get played again by Kremlin spies who shifted their demands right after the meeting.

Even the location of the summit favored Putin, as the US state was once part of the Russian Empire, sold to the United States by a previous Tsar. Russians have been pushing the idea that Alaska should return under Moscow’s rule: welcoming Putin there handed the Kremlin yet another symbolic victory.

Despite this, some were optimistic, as Trump had promised Ukraine would get all the help needed to defend its civilians & warned there would be “very severe consequences” if Putin refused a ceasefire. Of course, this was a lie, just like the “I’ll end the war in 24 hours”…

…and the endless “two-week deadlines” he kept giving Putin for months. By now it’s obvious: Trump has no intention of punishing Russia or his dear Putin for their aggression against Ukraine. Russia got exactly what it wanted from the summit: photo-ops of Putin with Trump…

…and a starring role on the world stage. But Russia got even more: US soldiers kneeling in front of the Russian plane, rolling out a red carpet for Putin, photos of Putin looking smug while Trump looked tired and defeated, and a press conference where Putin stole the show…

… as Trump refused to take a single question. The whole fiasco made the US look weak, and even Fox News, Trump’s favorite media outlet, admitted that Putin came to Alaska and “steamrolled” him. After the Summit, Trump went golfing and left Rubio to spin the fiasco.

Rubio claimed there would be no sanctions on Russia after all (yet another meaningless deadline — TACO), arguing they’d “interfere” with peace talks and that Putin would just keep the war going if punished. Rubio refused to name any concessions Russia should make, claiming it would “collapse the negotiations.”

Less than 24 hours later, Trump himself named two, but for Ukraine: no NATO membership, and surrendering Crimea, as he’s been hinting at for two years.

Art of the Deal, or something.

But as always with Trump, one must look at his actions rather than at his words.

So far, he’s:
– Disbanded US sanctions enforcement
– Cut tracking of kidnapped children
– Blocked aid already approved by Congress
– Opposed oil price cap at G7
– Paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine
– Made the US and allies vote against a UN resolution condemning the war of aggression, calling for peace and a return of the kidnapped children

Ironically, the US in general has conversely shown strong support for Ukraine: 83 (out of 100) Senators backed a secondary sanctions bill targeting Russia’s energy sector, demonstrating rare bipartisan unity outside of Trump’s MAGA, and opinion polls show ongoing support for Ukraine. But of course, that sanctions bill has been postponed when Trump announced the Alaska Summit. How convenient…

Trump’s cabinet, on the other hand, is suspiciously packed with well-known vatniks who seem to despise Ukraine and cozy up to Russia: people like JD Vance, Tulsi Gabbard, and RFK Jr. who have refused to condemn the invasion and consistently spread Kremlin narratives. It seems that US foreign policy is hostage to a small group of Russia apologists who’d rather treat a brutal empire that deeply hates America as an ally than an enemy.

And Trump himself can’t wait to start doing business with Russia again. In Alaska, Putin fed him the same old bullshit about the “stolen” 2020 election and downplayed Moscow’s role in 2016, when Trump first won office with a big helping hand from the Kremlin.

Today, the American president meets Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, but no red carpet for him. Several EU leaders will join, but Trump has already said he’ll meet Zelenskyy alone first. It remains to be seen whether the orange man will disrespect him the same way he did in their last White House meeting.

The real estate magnate Witkoff, meanwhile, suggested that Putin agreed to enact a law stating that Russia would not “go after any other European countries”. In Putin’s Russia, this of course means nothing and they actually already have such a law in place:

The most ironic aspect of Witkoff’s appeal to Russian law as a security guarantee lies in the Russian Criminal Code. Article 353 stipulates that planning, preparing, or starting an aggressive war is punishable by 7–15 years in prison, while waging one carries 10–20 years.

— Tatarigami_UA (@Tatarigami_UA) August 18, 2025

While Trump and European leaders are scrambling to come up with some security guarantees for Ukraine, Russia’s military production is intensifying at an incredible pace, out-producing NATO’s manifold. Russia doesn’t look like a country preparing for peace…

And we’ve already seen that security assurances or even guarantees mean absolutely nothing: in 1994 the UK, the US, Ukraine and Russia signed the Budapest Memorandum & in 2004 Putin confirmed Russia’s recognition of Ukraine’s borders and sovereignty, including Crimea.

All meaningless.

Trump has even challenged NATO’s Article 5, the cornerstone of the alliance. He’s said he would let Russia “do whatever the hell they want” to allies who don’t spend enough on defense — an open invitation for Putin to test the West’s unity.

Putin’s goal hasn’t changed and he’s not hiding it: turn Ukraine into a Russian puppet state like Belarus. For him, “the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical disaster of the century” so of course he wants former Soviet states under Moscow’s hegemony again.

Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, fittingly arrived in Alaska wearing a CCCP (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR) sweatshirt.

The Russians had been eagerly awaiting Trump’s presidency, for Trump to hand them the parts of Ukraine they couldn’t seize after three years of fierce fighting. And indeed, Trump now wants to gift to Putin the whole Donbas, not just the occupied parts of it — a heavily fortified region that would take Russia years to fully conquer by conventional means and whose occupation by Russia would weaken Ukraine’s future defenses.

So, what will happen? Trump’s so-called “peace plan” is really just Putin’s wish list. The terms will be unacceptable for Ukraine, Zelenskyy will refuse, Trump will blame him for the war (that Russia started in 2014, years before Zelenskyy even got into politics), Russia’s deliberate bombing of civilians and genocidal occupation will both continue, the US will only sell a limited number of weapons through NATO partners, and Trump will quietly start lifting sanctions on Russia.

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Vatnik Soup — Kle•art