WORLD ROUNDUP: ALASKA SUMMITTrump Bows to Putin’s Approach on Ukraine | Putin Played Trump Like an Agent Handler Plays an Asset | Donald Trump’s Gift to Vladimir Putin, and more

Trump Bows to Putin’s Approach on Ukraine: No Cease-Fire, Deadlines or Sanctions  (Peter Baker, New York Times)
The net effect of the Alaska summit was to give President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia a free pass to continue his war against his neighbor indefinitely without further penalty, pending talks on a broader peace deal.

Russia Sees Victory as Trump Adopts Putin’s Approach to Ending Ukraine War  (Francesca Ebel, Robyn Dixon, Ellen Francis, Catherine Belton, and Siobhán O’Grady, Washington Post)
In President Donald Trump’s warm red-carpet greeting at the Alaska summit, Russians saw an opening to pull America away from its traditional allies in Europe.

No Deal, but No Consequence for Putin  (David E. Sanger, New York Times)
President Trump’s failure to reach an accord on Ukraine only made his warm welcome for the Russian leader more striking.
In ordinary times, the failure of the leaders of the world’s two largest nuclear powers to reach agreement on ending a brutal, three-year conflict at the heart of Europe might be cause for despair.
But to the Ukrainians and their European neighbors, the breakup of talks between President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin after less than three and a half hours contained an element of relief.
Desperate as they are to end the death and destruction, their deepest fear was that Mr. Trump would give in to the Russian president’s territorial demands, and force President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine into a painful choice between giving up more than 20 percent of his country or rejecting a peace accord that he fears is a poison chalice.
There  were many reasons to worry:
Absent was any public discussion of secondary sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil. Gone were the deadlines previously set by Mr. Trump — including one that passed last week — for Russia to enter a lasting cease-fire. With smiles, handshakes and a personal meeting, Mr. Putin had washed away Mr. Trump’s talk of “serious consequences” if the meeting ended without a cessation of hostilities.
Most of all, gone was any hint of Mr. Putin’s status as an international pariah, a leader who could not land in most European countries for fear that he might be detained by officials acting on the arrest warrant issued against him for how the war in Ukraine was conducted. (Cont.)