Nikolai Rybakov’s Telegram channel, 15.08.2025

Photo: Screenshot from LIDOVE NOVINY website 

The meeting of the leaders of the US and Russia will be the seventh in total and the first since the beginning of Donald Trump’s new presidential term. Before this, leaders Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump met six times. The last was at the G20 summit in Japan in June 2019. Expectations from this meeting among the media and all who dream of ending the conflict in Ukraine are enormous. I spoke with journalist Jiří Just from the Czech media LIDOVE NOVINY about what I would like to expect from this conversation.

Certainly, nothing will be resolved in one meeting in one moment. I am convinced – when leaders of the states involved in the conflict meet to talk rather than shoot, then this meeting can become a chance to finally stop killing people.

It would be important for Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s meeting to achieve a ceasefire agreement with necessary guarantees that would actually ensure cessation of hostilities. This could be followed by a series of negotiations and meetings that would put an end to killing people. Because the number of victimes is so great that this conflict is today one of the greatest tragedies of the 21st century.

I should say that dialogue between Russia and the USA is necessary on a number of other unresolved problems, primarily in the security sphere. In recent years and next year, key agreements between Russia and the USA guaranteeing international security will cease to operate.

There are other mutual security issues, such as arms control, weapons proliferation control, mutual attacks, cyber attacks and deployment of weapons in space – Grigory Yavlinsky wrote about many of these in his article.

Perhaps as early as Saturday morning we will learn how much our expectations and reality coincided. But in any case, we must believe that peace will come. History knows no conflict that didn’t end. The main thing is for peace to happen as soon as possible. If Friday’s Putin-Trump meeting becomes a step towards ending the conflict, then it won’t be in vain.