Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
But why is he admitting it now?
The Kremlin has repeatedly mentioned “the Spirit of Anchorage” as the only acceptable stepping stone for peace negotiations with Ukraine.
While it is unclear exactly what that term refers to, it refers to the August 2025 Alaska Summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
For nearly a year, Moscow had promoted the August 2025 Alaska Summit as a major turning point, but Putin now appears to have finally admitted that no actual deal was ever made.
During a televised interview on June 28, the Russian leader suddenly changed his tune. According to a report by the Russian business newspaper Kommersant, Putin acknowledged the lack of any official diplomatic breakthroughs.
He admitted that “there really were no agreements in Anchorage” during the summit. Instead, the two sides merely discussed ideas for halting the conflict.
Pressure from Washington
The sudden admission followed pressure from Washington. Just days earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly disputed the Kremlin’s claims that a secret deal had been struck.
“If there had been an agreement, we would have had an end to the war,” Rubio said on June 25.
Interestingly, the official Kremlin readout completely omitted Putin’s comments about the summit. However, the remarks emerged anyway after journalist Pavel Zarubin posted the unedited video online.
Putin claimed that “the compromises that were discussed were precisely the proposals that the American side put forward to us.” He added that Russia is ready to resume talks and is waiting for U.S. envoys.
Why admit it now?
In its June 29 update on the war, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) suggested that Putin is now acknowledging that no actual deal was ever made in an attempt to avoid tensions between Washington and Moscow, since Rubio’s remarks contradict claims that such a deal had been struck.
The think tank noted that since the August 2025 summit, Ukraine has managed to turn the tide of the war, reclaiming more territory than Russian forces have been able to capture.
However, ISW noted that Putin is still signalling a willingness to use the proposals from the Alaska Summit as a basis for negotiations, likely in an attempt to encourage the United States to make a new diplomatic push for peace without taking developments on the ground into account.
Stalled on the battlefield
Moscow’s diplomatic shift comes as the war enters a difficult phase. Russian forces remain heavily stalled on the front lines, while Ukraine has successfully launched deep drone strikes inside Russian territory.
Despite Russia’s advantage in weapons, Ukraine’s drone campaign is disrupting front-line logistics. Experts believe this shifting military balance explains why Putin is eager to restart negotiations.
“It is hard to say that the initiative in the fighting is on Ukraine’s side,” Conflict Intelligence Team analyst Ruslan Leviev told The Washington Post, “but time is on Ukraine’s side.”
By pushing to return to the 2025 proposals, Putin hopes to ignore recent Ukrainian gains. Since last August, Ukrainian troops have reclaimed vital territory. Russia is now on the defensive.
