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verything unfolded just as the Europeans had expected. The summit on Friday, August 15, between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, ended without any concrete prospects for a ceasefire in Ukraine. However, it worked to the advantage of the Russian president, who found himself rehabilitated on the world stage thanks to the event.

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War in Ukraine: Trump fails to secure ceasefire from Putin

The aggressor of an independent country, Ukraine, which he claims as his own, and wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, Putin was treated on Friday by the United States with all the honors reserved for a respected leader of a major power. Greeted as he stepped off the plane by President Trump, invited to walk the red carpet with him to the American president's limousine and then invited inside, the Russian president clearly appreciated these gestures. To express his gratitude to Trump, he echoed two grievances dear to the Republican president: that the 2020 presidential election, won by Joe Biden, was fraudulent, and that the war in Ukraine would never have started if Trump had been president.