Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk, as head of NATO’s largest and most well-armed ‘eastern flank’ country, expressed both concern and cautious optimism on Monday ahead of the upcoming Trump-Putin summit set in Alaska, focused on the war in Ukraine.
Tusk emphasized ‘hope’ based on Washington’s assurance that it would consult its European allies before the talks. “The US has committed to consulting with its European partners ahead of the Alaska meeting,” Tusk told a press conference. “I will wait to see the outcome of the talks between Presidents Trump and Putin — I have many concerns, but also some hope.” But he also laid out, “The West, including European countries, will not accept Russian demands which simply amount to the seizure of Ukrainian territory.”
Tusk further stressed that European leaders were united in their stance on peace negotiations, insisting that Ukraine must be actively included in any talks.
But the reality and elephant in the room is that Moscow is not going to sign onto a final peace settlement and halt its special military operation for nothing short of territorial concessions. It is not going to give up its conquered territories in the Donbas, which it has already declared part of the Russian Federation.
“For Poland and our partners, it is clear: borders cannot be altered by force,” Tursk said. “Russia must not gain from its aggression against Ukraine.”
The rest of European leadership clearly agrees with him. “As we work towards a sustainable and just peace, international law is clear: All temporarily occupied territories belong to Ukraine,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said. “A sustainable peace also means that aggression cannot be rewarded.”
And yet, on Sunday NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte actually for the first time opened the door a little on the question of territorial concessions:
“In the end, the issue of the fact that the Russians are controlling at this moment, factually, a part of Ukraine has to be on the table” in any peace talks after the Alaska summit, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on CBS on Sunday.
Rutte said Ukraine’s Western backers “can never accept that in a legal sense,” but he suggested that they might tacitly acknowledge Russian control.
He compared it to the way that the U.S. hosted the diplomatic missions of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from 1940 to 1991, “acknowledging that the Soviet Union was controlling those territories, but never accepting (it) in a legal sense.”
He explained, “When it comes to the entire issue of territory, when it comes to recognition, for example, perhaps in a future agreement, that Russia actually controls part of Ukrainian territory, that must be an actual recognition, not a de jure political recognition.”
Watch Turk lay down Europe’s red lines on negotiations and what’s at stake:
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk [@donaldtusk] has warned Russia against getting the idea it can challenge other countries’ borders “with impunity.” He made the comments during a speech at Poland’s Nitro-Chem explosives plant. He also repeated the call for no deals about Ukraine… pic.twitter.com/FyWJarnBNk
— TVP World (@TVPWorld_com) August 11, 2025
Does this reflect Trump’s thinking too? If there’s any hope whatsoever of making headway with Putin in Alaska, this will indeed have to be on the table. Otherwise there will be no point in talking and the whole meeitng will prove futile in terms of finding a settlement.
Still, what Russia will come a away with is a big diplomatic win regardless – just in the optics alone – in the fact that ‘isolated’ Putin is given a face-to-face bilateral summit with Trump.
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