Fox News host Howard Kurtz opened his Sunday show by noting that "not much was accomplished" at President Donald Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the war in Ukraine.
"Three and a half years into the brutal and bloody war in Ukraine after the illegal Russian invasion that has always featured targeting civilians, President Trump announced he would meet with Vladimir Putin and try to negotiate a peace deal," Kurtz explained. "There's no other way to put this: a dramatic lowering of expectations for the sit-down in Anchorage."
"After the meeting, despite some upbeat talk, it was clear not much was accomplished," he continued. "No ceasefire, no details, no questions from the press, just vague assurances that some progress was made without explaining what that was."
Former National Review editor Rich Lowry agreed that "Putin moved the ball a little bit in his direction."
"Putting off the talk of the ceasefire, at least for now, and getting Trump to stop threatening secondary sanctions and harsher measures," he noted.
Kurtz reported that Fox News had confirmed that "Trump is going along with a Putin plan to forget about the ceasefire and to give the Kremlin control of that whole Donbas region of Ukraine, eastern Ukraine, in exchange for ceding some land elsewhere."
"Many pundits are saying Putin was a sort of a pariah," the host observed, "and that he already won by getting a meeting on U.S. soil."
"Yeah, the United States just validated him, and we became an ally of Russia rather than an ally of Ukraine and our NATO allies there," left-leaning guest Meghan Hays said. "I don't think that Putin has any interest in having a deal. He wants to take Ukraine, and then he slowly wants to take back the rest of what the old USSR."
