“Disgusting, shameful, and ultimately pointless.”

This is how the Ukrainian newspaper Kyiv Independent assesses the summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska in an editorial that opens its website, recalling the honorable treatment reserved for the tsar in contrast to the humiliation reserved for Volodymyr Zelensky in February at the White House.

The lesson, he writes, is that "Putin doesn't make deals, he just takes." "Trump didn't get what he wanted. But Putin? He certainly did. From the moment he stepped off the plane onto US soil, the Russian dictator was beaming. No longer an international pariah, he was finally winning the acceptance and respect of the leader of the free world. Trump's predecessor had once called Putin 'a murderer'; Trump instead offered him a royal welcome. Trump greeted Putin with a red carpet, warm handshakes, a flyover by US bombers, and a backseat limousine ride."

"The friendly attitude," the statement continues, " stood in stark contrast to Trump's hostile reception of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office six months earlier. The Ukrainian president was publicly humiliated. The Russian president was spoiled. Both incidents were shameful."

"Trump," the Ukrainian newspaper continued, "seemed to believe that a warm meeting could appease Putin and make a ceasefire more likely. But there's one lesson Trump hasn't yet learned: the Russian leader doesn't make deals, he takes. He takes what's offered, and then takes more, and keeps taking until he's stopped by force. This is the Russian art of the deal."

(Unioneonline)

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