Russia views the US role as a mediator in negotiations with Ukraine with increasing suspicion. And the discussions between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, in August last year, in Anchorage, Alaska, returned to the center of the debate, while the war is experiencing an escalation phase.
Ukraine launched a “Flamingo” missile attack against the Titan-Barrikady factory in the Russian city of Volgograd in the early hours of Saturday (27). According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the attacked complex produces artillery systems and “missile launcher elements”. Authorities in Volgograd said one person died and 11 others were hospitalized due to the attack.
The Russian Ministry of Defense, in turn, reported that, in total, 124 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russian regions and the Black Sea during the early hours of Saturday.
On the other side of the conflict, in the confrontation of armies on the front line in Donbass, this week a significant advance was recorded by Russian troops, who managed, for the first time in recent months, to break through the Ukrainian defense towards the metropolitan region of the cities of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk on three fronts simultaneously.
Intrigue over Alaska talks
Parallel to the theater of war, an issue that dominated diplomatic negotiations involving Russia and the USA this week was the controversy over what was discussed at the summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, in Anchorage, Alaska, in August 2025.
Russian Foreign Minister Serguei Lavrov pointed out that the developments of this meeting in Alaska are among the main points of contention in the dialogue on resolving the conflict. The chancellor’s speech took place during his participation in the “Primakov” International Forum, in Moscow, last Wednesday (24), an event that discusses the main guidelines of Russian foreign policy.
“In August 2025, the leaders of Russia and the United States reached a series of understandings on political solutions to the Ukrainian crisis. We remain committed to these understandings. They were largely initiated by the Americans, and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to the proposals presented to us, especially after carefully considering them. The decision is not in our hands today, although they are increasingly trying to pass the buck to us,” he said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in turn, stated that, at the time, “an offer was made”, but that it never materialized into an agreement to achieve an end to the war in Ukraine. Commenting on the statement, Russian Foreign Minister Serguei Lavrov asked for clarification on Rubio’s statement to understand whether the US is willing to play a constructive role in resolving the conflict.
At the summit in Anchorage, although the details of the negotiations were not officially revealed, it was reported that understandings were reached that “could serve as a starting point for an agreement”, as Lavrov stated, back in December.
The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, stated that, at the Anchorage meeting, the Russian side confirmed that it agreed with the American proposals and was ready to “demonstrate the proposed flexibility”. The Kremlin has repeatedly referred to the “spirit of Anchorage” when discussing the peace process in Ukraine. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov clarified that this refers to a “set of understandings” reached in Alaska that could lead to a breakthrough in the situation around Ukraine.
The return of the topic of the meeting between Putin and Trump in Alaska is directly related to the recent developments at the G7 summit. According to diplomatic sources linked to the negotiations in Anchorage, cited by the agency Axiosduring the G7 summit, held in France between June 15 and 17, US President Donald Trump reportedly indicated that he could reconsider the understandings reached at the meeting in Anchorage.
According to the publication, the American president expressed doubts about Vladimir Putin and spoke of the need to increase pressure on Russia. However, according to the sources, other summit participants are unsure whether Washington will actually move forward with practical measures.
The controversy over what was discussed in Alaska, still in 2025, reflects Moscow’s position on the conditions for reactivating negotiations on the Ukraine war. Over the last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow is based on some “bases” to resume dialogue with Ukraine: the outcome of the negotiations in Anchorage with Donald Trump, the 2022 Istanbul agreements and the “situation on the ground” on the battlefield in Donbass.
At the same time, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, last Friday (26), during a press briefing, called into question the US position as a possible neutral mediator in efforts to negotiate peace.
“You have just heard Mr. Trump’s statement that after the end of the conflict with Iran, he intends to renew his efforts to resolve the situation in Ukraine. You know that Russia highly values these efforts to seek a solution to the Ukrainian issue. But of course making such efforts while involved in a war on one side is impossible. Of course we know that the US negotiating team understands this perfectly, is aware of it, and it is on this basis that we are working,” he stated,
The impasse in negotiations comes at a time of escalating war, in which both Russia and Ukraine find themselves in an advantageous position in which it is not worth making concessions. On the one hand, Ukraine is increasing long-distance attacks, managing to reach the capital Moscow with drones, and, on the other, the Russian army continues to advance on the front line, in the territories of the Donbass region.
In an interview with Brazil in factthe analyst of International Crisis Group for Russia, Oleg Ignatov, assesses that the current scenario of the war reflects the impasse in negotiations, as “both sides can say that they have trump cards now, and that means that both sides can leave things as they are, because they believe that they still have trump cards”.
“Russia and Ukraine believe that they can further strengthen their trump cards or acquire new ones. So in that sense, despite all the rhetoric about peace, I really don’t see any particular desire for peace here and now, no. In the medium term, yes. But everything is as before. Both sides believe that they can further strengthen their positions by continuing the war. In that sense, that’s why the war continues. They think that by intensifying it, maybe something will happen to Russia, or maybe the Ukrainians suffer from the winter cold and the situation gets worse”, he argues.
In this sense, the lack of prospects for a resolution of the war reflects the lack of concrete progress in what was discussed between Moscow and Washington in Alaska. Oleg Ignatov highlights that, at the time, everything indicates that Russia agreed with the US position, that “the territorial issue could be resolved on the condition that Russia receives all of Donbass”.
“The U.S. has failed to convince Ukraine and Europe with this position. That’s what Russia says, and the Americans don’t say anything about it. The Americans haven’t promised anything. They probably said something like, ‘Let’s talk to our allies,’ but the question is, who proposed this? And if they themselves couldn’t fulfill the proposal, then Russia thinks: ‘Well, you proposed a position, you couldn’t fulfill it, and now you’re pressuring us to make more concessions.’ In other words, Russia perceives this as an attempt to pressure Moscow into getting new commitments”, he adds.
The diplomatic intrigue of recent days paints a new scenario after a period in which it was believed that the US could exercise a position more favorable to Moscow’s interests in mediation with Ukraine. Now the Kremlin raises the suspicion that this time, since the meeting in Alaska, in August 2025, may have been used to rearm Ukraine.
After almost a year of the “spirit of Alaska” being used as a source of optimism for Russian interests, what Moscow sees is the return of threats of pressure on Russia, including new sanctions. This was highlighted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Serguei Lavrov, during the “Primakov” International Forum, last Wednesday (24), highlighting the package of initiatives from the White House that has been sustaining distrust of the Kremlin.
“After Alaska, in September 2025, I met with the American Secretary of State, Miguel Rubio, in New York, and reminded him of our expectations. He said they were working on it and that there were ‘difficulties’. That was their proposal. Meanwhile, shortly after New York, Biden’s sanctions were extended once again, and Trump’s sanctions were imposed on Lukoil and Rosneft,” recalled the chancellor.
“The Pentagon has now created new programs specifically for Ukraine. A kind of testing ground is being prepared in the USA to develop methods of warfare based on the experience of combat operations in Ukraine. And, of course, there are no restrictions, other than physical ones, on the sale of weapons to Europe, so they can continue to ‘inflate’ Ukraine,” the chancellor said.
Source: www.brasildefato.com.br
