President Trump is scheduled to meet Friday with Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss the Russo-Ukrainian War and possible ways of ending it.

Trump, who was supposed to impose ruinous secondary sanctions on Aug. 8 but did not (shades of TACO?), apparently has hopes of coming to some sort of agreement. He will be sorely disappointed, as Putin’s openly and persistently declared war aims and views of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky preclude compromise.

Putin has accused Zelensky of being an illegitimate president, even though Zelensky won a fair and free election in 2019, and Ukraine’s constitution expressly permits elections to be suspended at a time of war. The truly illegitimate president is of course Putin, who has been elected in rigged ballots several times, most recently in 2024.

This matters only because Putin has indicated that he won’t sign any official documents with Zelensky, inasmuch as the Ukrainian leader is supposedly not a real president. If Zelensky attends the Alaska summit, any agreement that is reached — however unlikely such an eventuality — will remain without Putin’s signature........

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