Trump and Putin will meet on Aug 15 at a US military base in Alaska. Officially it’s about “talks” and maybe even a Ukraine ceasefire, but critics think it’s more about optics and giving Putin a stage.
Zelensky already said no deal without Ukraine at the table, so hard to see any real breakthrough here.
What do you guys think — could this actually change something, or is it just going to be another media circus?
I don't think there is going to be any serious peace talks on the table. I rather lean on the possibility of Putin using Trump to give himself some façade of power over the west the western politics. Ukraine was purposely left out the room because Putin considers The United States to be the biggest reason why Ukraine has managed to survive the Russian aggression for so long.
Putin is counting on being able to manipulate Trump into not longer providing assistance for Ukraine, while Trump will try to trust his abilities as a business person to get something which give him as many political points as possible before the people of the USA, and the west in general.