Of the Ferragosto meeting between Trump and Putin at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, the reception reserved by the head of the United States will remain above all to the head of Russia. The image of American soldiers will remain impressed for a long time as they spread a red carpet for Putin, accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court for kidnapping and deportation of Ukrainian children and “honored” also of a ride on presidential limousine.

The one in Alaska was not a negotiation, but the legitimacy of a man accused of war crimes by the international criminal court. Trump, claiming to present himself as a peace mediator, gave Putin what he wanted: as the highest possible stage to legitimize himself as a respectable leader and break the international insulation to which he had been convicted of invading Ukraine, although he remains (for the international criminal court) a war criminal, accused of deporting children.

Putin’s victory

Putin’s victory is the red carpet, the photo with Trump, the applause of the Tycoon, the Russian and American flags alongside again. Worse still, Trump seems to have opened the door to new relations with Russia, ignoring the fact that Putin has not shown any intention of stopping his destruction campaign in Ukraine. Not only did the alarm sirens resonate even during the interview in Ukraine, but Putin, in its rapid statements following the interview, reiterated that peace would require the elimination of the so -called “deep causes” of the conflict, continuing to speak a twentieth -century language made of areas of influence and cold wars.

In Putin, who hypocritically spoke of “common pain” for the Ukrainians who die and will continue to die for his cause, does not affect peace. The head of the Kremlin aims to affirm Russia as a regional power, as the USSR was during the Cold War: not surprisingly, its foreign minister Lavrov, which was once considered a respectable diplomat, landed in Alaska wearing a sweatshirt with the word “CCCP”, the initials of the USSR in Cyrillic.

Existential question

Putin’s requests, which seems to have been fully reiterated in Trump during the interview, include the recognition of Russian sovereignty on Crimea and the entire regions of Donetsk and Luhansk (which Russia, after three and a half years, cannot conquer militarily). But also the demilitarization of Ukraine, which has already passed us by renouncing the nuclear arsenal in the 90s and should now even be destroyed the army. It would be the death sentence for independent Ukraine, the beginning of a path to bring it back completely under the Russian influence area, without guarantees to avoid a future war. That’s why for Ukraine it is not a “territorial” but existential question. And it should also be for all of Europe: Putin and its ideologists have repeatedly attacked the European Union, also trying to destabilize it from the inside, because for an autocratic country, with an economy based on oligarchs and a national ideology based on traditionalism, the free, democratic, pluralist and open West is a true “enemy”.

Dangerous message

Not a few stressed that the Summit in Alaska was a point in favor of Putin, able to impose his vision of the end of the war in front of a Trump unable to maintain the promise of very heavy penalties without the ceasefire. More, the summit has materialized in a betrayal of Ukraine and the democratic values that the United States should embody. The message is dangerous: war crimes can be forgiven with a handshake and brutality (without promise to cease it) can be rewarded with international legitimacy.

Peace is not built with photos and smiles and red rugs, but with respect for international law and the condemnation of those who threaten sovereign states. Meanwhile in the aftermath, Saturday 16 August, five other Ukrainian civilians were killed by the Russians in the Donetsk region. It is Putin’s “thanks” for the reception in Alaska and the exit from isolation.