As US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin were deeply engaged in peace talks, enjoying the warmth of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was out in the cold, rather literally. He was not invited for the peace talks, nor was he consulted about the terms and conditions of a ceasefire. Even before the talks began, Trump had stated that Ukraine should strike a deal with Russia to bring the war to an end, because “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not” — going back on his earlier promise that Russia would face “severe consequences” if Moscow refused a peace settlement at the summit.
Going by the outcome of the meeting between Trump and Putin, it’s clear Russia is not facing any serious consequences, while Ukraine is being pressured to give up lands captured by the Russian army. The Alaska meeting ended without a ceasefire promise or a ‘deal’, as Trump likes to call it, signalling a diplomatic victory for Putin and a military gain as he is not returning any of the Ukrainian areas under Russian occupation. Besides, Trump’s threat of additional tariff on India if the talks failed has also been put off for now, allowing India to continue buying Russian oil at a competitive price.
Yet US rhetoric on India is still concerning.
Earlier this week, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, in her routine briefing, said that President Trump has put “sanctions” on India to bring the war in Ukraine to a close. The press conference video is all over social media, listing out the wars earlier American dispensations started and the conflicts Trump has purportedly stopped. One would like to believe the term “sanctions” was a slip of the tongue, and that the word should have been ‘imposed tariff’. If not, the White House owes a clarification to New Delhi.
Punishing India for an unending war that began because Russia wanted to stop NATO from recruiting Ukraine as a member in its eastward expansion agenda is, to say the least, ridiculous.
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India caught between double standards
Asking India not to buy oil from Russia and to stop “financing its war with Ukraine” is nothing but duplicity. Per reports, China is the biggest buyer of discounted Russian crude, and Turkey is the third, yet neither faces any tariff for doing so.
In 2024, the US imported $3 billion worth of goods from Russia, according to the latest data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the Census Bureau. In the first half of this year alone, it imported $927 million worth of fertiliser, after having bought more than $1 billion worth last year. The US particularly relies on Russia for three types of chemical fertilisers: urea, urea ammonium nitrate (UAN), and potassium chloride muriate of potash.
Additionally, the US imported $878 million worth of palladium in 2024 and $594 million worth up to June 2025. The silvery metal is used in various electronic and industrial products, and is a key component in the catalytic converters of cars. So far this year, the US has imported $755 million worth of uranium and plutonium from Russia, compared with $624 million in 2024.
The European Union — which has been America’s partner in sanctions against Moscow — imported $41.9 billion (36 billion euros) worth of goods from Russia in 2024. In the first quarter of 2025, the EU also imported $300 million (260 million euros) worth of nickel, used primarily to make stainless steel and other alloy steels, as well as batteries.
Trump’s office in the White House should do some sincere soul-searching on who is actually funding Russia in its war against Ukraine.
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India and the end of Atlanticism
Two days after the Alaska meeting, Putin briefed India about the talks, and it can be safely assumed that oil sales and other trade deals between India and Russia will remain intact without the anxiety of tariff imposition.
Three days after the talks, Trump seems to have been able to garner the support of EU leaders and convince Zelensky that what transpired in Alaska with Putin was the best of the available solutions to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. There is no ceasefire, no “deal”, except the opening of Russian commerce to US corporates.
After the EU-Ukraine-US meeting, President Zelensky on 18 August revealed details of a proposed landmark agreement to purchase $90 billion worth of American weapons, a move aimed at securing US security guarantees while sustaining Ukraine’s fight against Russia. This money could potentially come from the interest earned on frozen Russian funds, much of it locked up at Euroclear, a Belgian clearinghouse. It is reported to be holding 183 billion euros of Russian sovereign funds out of an estimated 300 billion euros frozen in European banks.
The next round of “peace talks” is likely to be held soon between Putin and Zelensky. But before those talks are scheduled, Putin will likely make a hard bargain for the unfreezing of funds and mop up the money, probably agreeing to forgo the interest. In any case, arming and rebuilding Ukraine is not going to be an easy task for the EU, which has tied itself to the apron strings of America. Putin has won the first round in his quest to dominate “Economic Eurasia” and Trump has de-coupled America from Atlanticism.
New Delhi has very few options in the present situation: continue doing business with Russia, engage with China, and call for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. India has begun work on all three while Trump continues to burn bridges with New Delhi.
Seshadri Chari is the former editor of ‘Organiser’. He tweets @seshadrichari. Views are personal.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
India ought to turn the problem into an opportunity. By its unjustified actions, 🇺🇸 has potentially galvanised India’s ascent. The elephant has probably gotten a spring in its strides, thanks to 3 T (Trump’s tariff tantrums).