Wall Street Journal: “Ukraine could lose land but survive as a secure and sovereign, if shrunken, nation state. Alternatively, it could lose both land and sovereignty, falling back into Moscow’s sphere of influence.”

“European leaders said Sunday that they will join President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Monday when he meets with President Trump at the White House, as they strive to present a united front against Russia and avoid being sidelined in talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine,” the New York Times reports.

“German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, were among the leaders who announced that they will join Mr. Zelensky in Washington. Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, will also join, as will NATO’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union’s executive arm.”

Washington Post: European, NATO leaders to present united front with Zelensky in Trump meeting.

“Russian President Vladimir Putin couldn’t have scripted his first visit to the U.S. since 2015 much better,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The Russian leader strutted along a red carpet at a U.S. air base and posed smiling with President Trump, who had weeks earlier been expressing mounting frustration with him and threatening to hit Russia and its trading partners with sanctions. He met with Trump under a sign that read ‘pursuing peace.’”

“When they emerged 3½ hours later, the leaders said they hadn’t reached a deal. Instead, Putin used the stage to press his demands on Ukraine. Neither Trump nor Putin, who is facing an international arrest warrant for war crimes, took questions from the U.S. press.”

New York Times: “After all of the pre-summit talk of land swaps and the technicalities of a possible cease-fire in Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin made clear after his meeting in Alaska with President Trump that his deepest concern was not an end to three and a half years of bloodshed. Rather, it was with what he called the ‘situation around Ukraine,’ code for his standard litany of grievances over Russia’s lost glory.”

Politico: “Plans are in the works to send at least one of Trump’s favorite interlocutors, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, along with Zelenskyy when he comes to Washington Monday to meet with Trump.”

“The idea is that Stubb can help prevent any flare-ups between Trump and Zelenskyy and convince the U.S. president to include Europe in any further talks.”

Stephen Collinson: “Russian President Vladimir Putin got everything he could have hoped for in Alaska. President Donald Trump got very little — judging by his own pre-summit metrics.”

“The question now is whether Trump secured any moderate gains or planted seeds for Ukraine’s future security if there’s an eventual peace deal with Russia that were not immediately obvious after Friday’s summit…”

“Despite Trump’s claim to have made ‘a lot of progress’ and that the summit was a ‘10 out of 10,’ all signs point to a huge win for the Russian autocrat.”

“President Trump told European leaders that he was open to offering U.S. security guarantees to Ukraine, a significant shift in his stance toward America’s role in any end to the war,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Axios: “Putin did say he was willing to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine… But he mentioned China as one of the possible guarantors, possibly suggesting he would oppose a security force consisting of NATO troops…”

“Trump has said this wouldn’t be a NATO mission, but Ukraine hopes the U.S. will participate in some fashion.”

Peter Baker: “On the flight to Alaska, President Trump declared that if he did not secure a cease-fire in Ukraine during talks with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, ‘I’m not going to be happy,’ and there would be ‘severe consequences.’”

“Just hours later, he got back on Air Force One and departed Alaska without the cease-fire he deemed so critical. Yet he had imposed no consequences, and had pronounced himself so happy with how things went with Mr. Putin that he said ‘the meeting was a 10.’”

“Even in the annals of Mr. Trump’s erratic presidency, the Anchorage meeting with Mr. Putin now stands out as a reversal of historic proportions. Mr. Trump abandoned the main goal he brought to his subarctic summit and, as he revealed on Saturday, would no longer even pursue an immediate cease-fire. Instead, he bowed to Mr. Putin’s preferred approach of negotiating a broader peace agreement requiring Ukraine to give up territory.”