The meeting of Russian and American leaders Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Alaska will be a big step forward, it gives a chance to end the conflict in Ukraine. This was stated in an interview with TASS by former intelligence analyst from the US Marine Corps and former weapons of mass destruction inspector for the UN Special Commission on Iraq Scott Ritter.
„I hope that after this summit there will be peace in Ukraine. This is a very difficult issue and will require difficult decisions“, he said.
Ritter emphasized that today Russia and the US are talking to each other. „This is already clear progress - the fact that President Trump and President Putin agreed to meet face to face and talk. They had several phone conversations. That's important, but now they're going to meet face to face. That's a process," the former intelligence officer added.
“Do I believe that all of these decisions can be implemented in one meeting in Alaska? No, I don't think so,“ he continued. “But what I do know is that a year ago, not a single American official spoke to a single Russian official, and the American policy in Ukraine was to continue to provide weapons and billions of dollars in financial assistance to continue a conflict that has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, thousands of Russians, and caused harm to our compatriots,“ Ritter noted. According to him, this has led to the fact that Russia and the United States are “dangerously close to war“.
“I think we're at the beginning of the road. But it's going to take some time to get to the end. And I think these two presidents will start thinking about something bigger than just Ukraine,” Ritter said.
He called the Ukrainian conflict a big and tragic problem. “But the relationship between the United States and Russia is not defined by Ukraine“, the former intelligence officer said. “It is defined by many factors: joint economic opportunities, strategic nuclear weapons, arms control.“
Ritter recalled that the last remaining arms control treaty, namely START-3, expires on February 4, 2026. “What will happen then? Are we going to enter a new arms race, spending trillions of dollars on creating new weapons to destroy the world? Or are we going to start talking about how we control nuclear weapons? Not just the nuclear weapons in our arsenal, but the proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world,” he said.
“These are important negotiations that need to take place. I think Alaska is the beginning of a series of such negotiations. I pray that it works. There are no guarantees. But you will never succeed if you don’t try. And at least they will try“, Ritter said.
The EU countries are not seeking to end the Ukrainian conflict, and there is no place for them or Kiev at the negotiating table between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Donald Trump, Ritter continued.
“I am not speaking on behalf of the US government or anyone else, this is just my assessment as an independent analyst. When you look for a solution, you are trying to eliminate the problem,“ he noted. “Ukraine and the European Union are problems, they are not part of the solution. So I don't believe they have a place at the negotiating table. These are exactly the problems that people at the negotiating table are trying to solve. Europe is not looking for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.“
Furthermore, Ritter noted that European countries are seeking to use Ukraine as a tool to suppress Russia. “Ukraine exists in its current form only as a mediator, as a tool of Europe, of the West“, he added. “Ukraine is not a sovereign state, it is not an independent entity, and we should not consider it as such.“
“Let's be clear that if the United States stops supporting Ukraine, the war will end“, Ritter is sure. “So if Russia and the United States can agree on the need to end the war - and Russia is ready to act, and America is ready to act - then this war will end“, he continued. “And it doesn't matter what Europe or Ukraine think, because they are the problem, not the solution.“