Wall Street Journal Editorial Board 👀 No Likey the Summit [View all]

[underpants]

No Ukraine Cease-Fire From Putin
The Russian gets his photo-op but makes no apparent concessions at his summit with Trump.

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/no-ukraine-cease-fire-from-putin-9a1164bc


Mr. Trump was full of praise for Mr. Putin and said the two “made some great progress today,” though “we didn’t get there” to an agreement. He offered no details about the “progress” and announced no end to hostilities. He said they agreed on many things but not on the biggest areas, which presumably means a cease-fire and any compromises on Mr. Putin’s war aims.

In that sense the Russian achieved one of his major goals from the summit, which is the start of his rehabilitation as a world leader. The summit ended his isolation from the West, and he gave up nothing for it. He also appears to have gained more time to continue bombing Ukrainian cities and slowly taking more territory.

It isn’t clear what Mr. Trump gained. He had told the press that he would be angry if no cease-fire emerged from the parley, but Mr. Trump showed no pique afterward. Perhaps there was some quiet concession Mr. Trump will take back to Ukraine, and if so we will know that soon enough.


If there was nothing but niceties and a Putin stonewall, then Mr. Trump will have to decide if he will follow through on the red lines he has drawn. On Wednesday he had promised “very severe consequences” if Mr. Putin didn’t agree to end the war. Will he now move to impose sanctions on such buyers of Russian oil as China and Turkey as he has India? Or will he agree to a second summit, as Mr. Putin seems to want, in hope that next time will be different?

https://archive.is/2025.08.16-165952/https://www.wsj.com/opinion/no-ukraine-cease-fire-from-putin-9a1164bc?st=bSKz7d