The US diplomatic initiative to end the war in Ukraine has stalled. Moscow and Kyiv are intensifying attacks, and civilian casualties are rising. US Secretary of State Rubio acknowledges that 'new proposals and new ideas' will be needed.
It has been exactly one year since former US President Donald Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin at the summit in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15, 2025. That meeting, envisioned as a turning point to end the Russian offensive against Ukraine launched in February 2022, now seems like a distant memory. The diplomatic initiative has failed, and the conflict has escalated to a level of brutality not seen since the early months of the war.
Russian officials spent months extolling the 'spirit of Anchorage,' a climate of détente and renewed dialogue with Washington. But today, little remains of that atmosphere. 'The spirit of Anchorage has dissipated,' said Russian political analyst Fyodor Lukyanov, close to the ruling elite, in August. The result, as Lukyanov put it, is 'brutal escalation.'
The content of the Trump-Putin talks at Elmendorf-Richardson Air Base remains shrouded in secrecy. Moscow insisted that some kind of agreement on a peace plan had been reached. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called it a 'compromise proposal.' Washington, however, firmly rejected any claims of an agreement.
'There was a proposal in Alaska, but there was no agreement. If there had been an agreement, the war would have been over,' US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in June, as reported by AFP. According to Russian political analyst Sergei Markov, Moscow had hoped the summit would lay the groundwork for a 'lasting peace' by addressing what it calls the 'root causes' of the conflict.
Markov, whom the authorities label a 'foreign agent' but who remains close to the Kremlin, revealed to AFP what the Russian 'compromise' consisted of: limiting territorial claims to the eastern Donbas region, in exchange for US recognition of new Russian borders and the lifting of sanctions.
These demands were incorporated into a 28-point document drafted by the United States after separate negotiations with Kyiv and Moscow. The document was later reduced to 19 points but was never officially published or implemented. Direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations under US mediation collapsed in early 2026, primarily over territorial issues. Ukraine refuses to cede territories it still controls and demands an immediate ceasefire along the current front line.
An additional blow to diplomatic hopes came at the end of February 2026, when Washington's attention was completely diverted to the war with Iran. Since then, Trump has imposed new sanctions on Russia, and the last remaining nuclear arms control agreement, New START, has expired.
Moscow, which initially praised Trump's efforts, now publicly expresses doubts about Washington's commitment to diplomacy. 'I don't even want to think that Alaska... was designed to buy time for the military strengthening of Ukraine,' Lavrov said in June.
The first meeting between Lavrov and Rubio since September 2025, held in Manila in July, lasted only 30 minutes and yielded no progress. 'We will have to find new proposals and new ideas' that both 'Russia and Ukraine can agree on,' Rubio said after that meeting, adding: 'That will require a lot of work.'
While diplomacy stalls, both sides believe that force can improve their negotiating position. 'The Russian armed forces will continue their mission to liberate Donbas and Novorossiya in accordance with the approved plan,' Russian military chief Valery Gerasimov told Putin during a televised meeting in early July. The term 'Novorossiya' refers to an area stretching across eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukraine, encouraged by European support, is retaliating with long-range strikes aimed at destabilizing the Russian economy and society. These attacks caused a national fuel crisis in Russia during the summer and forced authorities in annexed Crimea to declare a local 'state of emergency.' Russia has responded with intensified missile strikes on Kyiv, killing dozens in recent weeks, and a campaign of attacks on ports and ships that has halted Ukrainian exports through the Black Sea.
The two sides' conditions for peace remain irreconcilable. Russia demands territory along with political and military concessions that Ukraine rejects as capitulation. A year after Alaska, the 'spirit of Anchorage' has been replaced by an even fiercer and bloodier phase of the war.
