BANGKOK, August 18. /TASS/. Ukraine and Europe are deluding themselves if they believe they can defeat Russia militarily while remaining completely dependent on the United States, Roostum Vansu, a Thai expert in international relations and a lecturer at the Institute of Peace Studies at Prince of Songkla University, told TASS in an interview while commenting on the outcomes of the Russia-US summit in Alaska.

"Ukraine and Europe are deceiving themselves into believing they can defeat Russia and pressure it into accepting their terms, even though in reality, they have no leverage. Their fate depends entirely on the United States. While they want a ceasefire, Russia is in a position where it doesn't need to stop fighting because it has the resources to continue the war for a long time. Therefore, the longer the armed conflict drags on, the more territory Ukraine will lose and Russia will gain," he said.

"The problem for Trump is whether he can genuinely control foreign policy. If he can, the US might be able to force Ukraine and Europe to accept defeat by potentially withdrawing support. However, if he cannot, it would mean that U.S. security foreign policy is controlled by the establishment that benefits from the conflict. In that case, it would be difficult for Trump to achieve his goal of ending the conflict between Russia and Ukraine," the expert argued.

"If he cannot control it [US foreign policy - TASS], this conflict will not end anytime soon, and it will eventually force Trump to accept that it is beyond his control and to resume supporting Ukraine and Europe as Biden did. This would risk a major war between Russia and NATO.

However, one fact remains: even if Trump were to resume supporting Ukraine as Biden did, it wouldn't be enough for Ukraine to defeat Russia," Vansu added.

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.