WASHINGTON, August 13. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump has been seeking a personal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin for several months, The Atlantic reported ahead of the August 15 summit.

According to the magazine, Russia, having supported the idea of a summit in Alaska, agreed to what Trump "has wanted for months: a one-on-one summit to discuss the end of the conflict" in Ukraine.

"Putin has already won," John Bolton, one of Trump’s former national security advisers, told the magazine. "Trump wants a deal. And if he can’t get one now, he may walk away from it entirely."

Bolton worked in the White House during the first Trump administration in 2018-2019.

The story also says that Kiev has to act very cautiously in the current situation.

"If Zelensky were to reject a deal, no matter how one-sided it might be, in Trump’s mind, Kiev would suddenly be the primary obstacle to peace," The Atlantic believes.

The magazine quotes White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, who rejected suggestions that Putin had outplayed Trump.

"What have any of these so-called foreign policy ‘experts’ ever accomplished in their lives, other than criticizing Donald Trump?" Leavitt asked The Atlantic reporter. "President Trump has solved seven global conflicts in six months, and he has made extensive progress in ending the Russia-Ukraine War, which he inherited from our foolish previous president, Joe Biden."

According to the Atlantic, the United States organized the summit in Alaska so hastily that it is still finalizing its details.

Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov said that the Kremlin expects that the next meeting between Putin and Trump will take place on Russian territory, Ushakov said.