Press review: Ukraine, NATO plan asymmetric response to Russia as Serbia protests escalate
Top stories from the Russian press on Monday, August 18th
Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump
MOSCOW, August 18. /TASS/. Experts evaluate the outcome of the Alaska summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, as Ukraine and NATO are considering an asymmetric response to Russia. Meanwhile, increasingly intense protests grip Serbia. These stories topped Monday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.
Vedomosti: Experts assess outcome of Alaska summit
The first major summit in years between the Russian and US leaders has not remained without consequences, as Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky arrives in Washington later on August 18. He won’t be alone heading for talks with US leader Donald Trump: at Zelensky’s `request’, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen too is planning to arrive. Apart from her and Zelensky, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will visit Trump in Washington, Politico reported.
Trump will hold separate meetings with Zelensky and the other politicians, according to Bild, as part of what will be the first ever ad hoc visit for negotiations with the US president by so many European leaders at once amid the Ukraine conflict.
Excluding Europe from the peace process just did not happen, Artyom Sokolov, a senior researcher at the European Studies Institute of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, told Vedomosti: Russian President Vladimir Putin called on European leaders not to hinder the implementation of peace agreements, while Trump urged Europe to be more proactive in efforts toward peace. At that, draft agreements between Russia and the United States remain unacceptable for them, as a compromise would take Moscow’s interests into account. Over the past three and a half years, European diplomacy has not pursued other policy toward Russia than to inflict a strategic defeat on it with subsequent domestic political changes, Sokolov maintains. The Europeans sought to make up for their costs of supporting Kiev through this, he adds.
However, the Europeans will hardly be able to continue to support Ukraine without assistance from the United States, the expert argued. Even as the European leaders will seek to persuade Trump not to abandon Ukraine, the EU has a plan B as well, which is to supply Kiev with weapons and money on its own, Associate Professor at the Financial University under the Russian Government Alexander Kamkin believes.
Pavel Koshkin, senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for US and Canadian Studies, views the results of the Putin-Trump summit as quite predictable as he thinks that the truly important agreements are being kept secret for now, including to avoid reputational costs, as they involve mutual concessions.
A major convergence of positions between Russia and the United States on the settlement paradigm, or the most fundamental issue, took place, says Deputy Director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics Dmitry Suslov. He believes that Trump’s decision to push for a final peace deal is the key outcome of the Alaska summit.
Meanwhile, Zelensky has actually refused to cede part of the Donbass region, according to political analyst Vladimir Vasilyev: this is exactly why the US president summoned Zelensky. As for the Europeans, they have no option but to offer vocal support to Kiev, he concluded.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Ukraine, NATO plan asymmetric response to Russia
Even as Russia still holds the initiative on the front line, Ukrainian troops keep launching strikes inside Russia, using combat drones. And Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky warned that Kiev will vigorously counter the Russian Army’s offensive, and "asymmetrically, if required." Meanwhile, Belarus is making preparations to hold an exercise that will practice "planning the use" of the Oreshnik missile system.
NATO member countries are discussing the prospect of an end to the Ukraine conflict as they decide how to ensure Kiev’s security. Britain said it could send troops to Kiev if there is a truce. According to preliminary information, the combat capabilities of "the friends of Ukraine" will be represented by the `coalition of the willing’ which includes more than 30 countries, even as it is not clear exactly how their `peacekeeping mission’ will function.
NATO has so far concentrated its combat capabilities in Poland and other Baltic states, bordering Russia and Belarus, its ally. Right now, Lithuania is holding the Arsus Vilkas (Fierce Wolf) 2025 military exercises involving some 350 Lithuanian troops and 50 units of military hardware. According to the Belarusian Defense Ministry, Poland has decided to establish a battlegroup of roughly 34,000 troops that may include foreign servicemen as well.
The upcoming Zapad 2025 strategic drills, scheduled for September 12-16 in Russia and Belarus, are seen as the Union State’s response to NATO and its Ukrainian allies. Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said the maneuvers will, among other tasks, include training with the Oreshnik missile system.
Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Alexander Syrsky warned that Russia "could secretly form offensive battlegroups and move troops to the Ukrainian border" under the cover of the Zapad 2025 exercise.
Military expert Retired Lieutenant General Yuri Netkachev dismissed these concerns as absurd. "The joint Russian-Belarusian exercise comes as negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict and introduce a ceasefire are being held. But it should not be considered a provocation, as these are routine biennial maneuvers, with the two countries taking turn hosting them. Observers from all OSCE member countries have already been invited to monitor those," Netkachev told Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
Izvestia: Street protests grow increasingly fierce in Serbia
As the political situation in Serbia worsens, its leadership may announce an early election, experts interviewed by Izvestia argued. Earlier, a wave of pogroms and arson attacks on government buildings swept through the Balkan country, leaving dozens of people injured. The Serbian Interior Ministry has promised to bring the situation under control. Meanwhile, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has refused to stand for re-election and announced a snap parliamentary election, which did not calm the opposition.
Radicalization of protests was a potential scenario when unrest began in November 2024, and it did take place, possibly to force the authorities to take an unprecedentedly harsh action in response, Program Manager at the Russian International Affairs Council Milan Lazovic told the newspaper. "It will be possible to accuse them of authoritarian rule and violations of freedoms <…>. The key objective is to provoke and compromise the [Vucic] government," the expert explained.
The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that the latest wave of street riots in the largest cities of Serbia has crossed the boundaries of civilized behavior.
Serbia argues that the protests were organized from overseas. Former Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin, for one, stated that protests are fueled because Belgrade refuses to join anti-Russian sanctions. And Vucic accused the West of making attempts to stage a color revolution in his republic, as he argued that "billions of euros have been invested" in this. Serbian Prime Minister Djuro Macut, too, stressed in an interview with Izvestia that Western special services are working to destabilize the situation in the country.
So far, direct Western interference has been minimal because Vucic himself is far from an undesirable figure for the West. Besides, the political and civil situation in Serbia is such that leaders of a new opposition have yet to emerge, believes Yekaterina Entina, director of the Center for Mediterranean Studies at the Higher School of Economics. "The foreign factor in protests will increase as soon as Western foundations and countries start to form political leaders amid these protests, if they haven’t already," the political analyst emphasized.
Rossiyskaya Gazeta: How Russia-US summit in Alaska may affect markets
While the ruble remained stable amid the Alaska meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US leader Donald Trump, the stock market reacted quite mutedly. Experts believe that markets await more signals, which will definitely come in the wake of the summit. Forecasts suggest that the situation on the market will likely remain the same in the coming weeks and months, Alexander Potavin, an analyst at Finam, believes. "Normalizing overseas trade" would be important for Russia, "and things around this issue have been complicated for the time being," Potavin said as he cautioned that the ruble may continue to weaken, with the USD/RUB exchange rate gradually drifting toward 80 to 84 rubles per $1 in the next couple of months.
"If the negotiations do take a positive path and the sides agree on terms that would suit everybody, the ruble may receive support and strengthen a bit more. This will be more of an emotive reaction rather than fundamental," the expert says. In the next week though, "the USD (as well as euro and yuan) exchange rates will be highly volatile again, and the situation may not change fundamentally in the medium term," Potavin predicted.
The early results from the Alaska meeting between the Russian and US presidents already show that Trump is ready to abandon Russophobia as a policy of putting economic pressure on Russia, Pavel Seleznyov, head of the Department of International Economic Relations at the Financial University under the Russian Government, told Rossiyskaya Gazeta. "As a profitable political tool, Russophobia has been exhausted. The West attempted another crusade eastward to weaken and undermine Russia, but failed. Moreover, the attempt to use Ukraine as a battering ram against Russia ended badly for both the West and the battering ram itself. <…> Trump has found a way of spurring the US economy through imposing tariffs on his major trade partners," Seleznyov explained.
The US president wants to make America an ideal place to manufacture goods for the entire globe, the expert recalled. "Trump is set to reindustrialize the United States in a short time, and he does not need Russophobia at all for that. On the contrary, cooperation with Russia gives an opportunity of adding trillions of dollars to the capitalization of the US economy," he concluded.
Kommersant: Analysts expect metallurgical coal recovery on demand from India, China
India’s need to replenish stocks and possible consumption growth in China could drive a recovery in the Asian metallurgical coal market in the third quarter, according to S&P Global. In the past few months, Russia has been the second-largest supplier of coking coal to these markets. And experts are already noting price growth in the country’s eastern ports amid stable demand.
NEFT Research noted the strengthening of prices for Russian coking coal in ports in eastern Russia in the first week of August, amid stable demand in China. Data from NEFT Research showed that, over the week to August 8, K grade coking coal rose 1.6% to $143.5 per metric ton, with prices exceeding the level seen at the start of the year by 0.5% but remaining 18.2% lower than the figures registered in August 2024.
Over the week to August 8, Russian PCI coal climbed by 8.8% to $123 per metric ton amid rising demand in Southeast Asia, NEFT Research said. However, analysts added, the market still lacks liquidity as local consumers are not in a hurry to buy large volumes.
Overall, the report showed, the price increase together with a moderate weakening of the ruble has created additional opportunities for signing profitable contracts, including with China.
According to the latest data, in June, China increased its imports of metallurgical coal by 23.3% from May to 9.11 million metric tons, Sxcoal said. Supplies from Russia surged by 23.9% to 2.33 million metric tons, month-on-month, in what is the second-largest increase among key suppliers of coking coal to China after Mongolia (4.7 million metric tons).
