BANGKOK, August 18. /TASS/. Ukraine would not have lost a single inch of its territory had it chosen neutrality and given up NATO membership plans, Roostum Vansu, a Thai expert in international relations and a lecturer at the Institute of Peace Studies at Prince of Songkhla University, told TASS in an interview while commenting on the outcomes of the Russia-US summit in Alaska.

"The only success from the Trump-Putin summit is the improved relationship between the US and Russia. This should be the fundamental truth and the way forward for the current conflict between Russia and NATO nations. That is, European countries and the US should turn back to a normal relationship with Russia as they once had. As for Ukraine, it must accept its fate as a buffer state and a bridge connecting Russian and European civilizations by becoming neutral, not by joining NATO. If Ukraine had realized this earlier, it wouldn't have lost a single inch of its territory," he said.

"The problem for Ukraine and Europe is that they don't trust Russia and refuse to accept defeat. They are hoping for a ceasefire simply to 'stop the bleeding' on the battlefield, without being serious about a peace agreement. Russia, on the other hand, insists that ending this protracted armed conflict requires addressing the root cause of the problem by discussing the details of a peace agreement to prevent the issue from re-escalating in the future. Starting with a ceasefire is not sustainable and, with the root problem unresolved, it's no different from a temporary truce that allows Ukraine to rearm for the next round of fighting," the expert argued.

Anchorage summit

On August 15, a meeting between Russian and US Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump took place at a military base in Alaska. The meeting lasted about three hours: there was a one-on-one discussion in the American leader’s limousine on the way to the main venue for the talks and a narrow "three-on-three" meeting. The Russian side was also represented by Presidential aide Yury Ushakov and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while the American side was represented by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.

In a statement to the press following the talks, Putin said that the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict was the main topic of the summit. The Russian leader also called for turning the page in bilateral relations and resuming cooperation, and invited Trump to Moscow. For his part, the US president announced the progress made in the talks, but noted that the parties had not managed to reach an agreement.