Ukrainian journalist Vitaly Portnikov shared his opinions with Espreso TV.“The West faces a problem today: how can it influence Moscow? If it turns out that the U.S. and EU countries have no tools to quickly influence Moscow, then all these sanctions talk aims to just scare Putin, while inspiring Xi Jinping to continue his policy in order to demonstrate the West’s helplessness,” Portnikov said. “Therefore, all these points about how international law must be respected will be meaningless if you have no means of exerting pressure. He does not want to negotiate because he understands that a long war of attrition will reward him with Ukraine as part of the Russian Federation. The only thing that can stop him is pressure.”According to Portnikov, that pressure could be military, with the West spending billions of dollars on aid to Ukraine, but this is not happening now: “If they are not ready to spend $150–200 billion annually on aid to Ukraine, then they cannot really put pressure on Russia. After all, Russia is ready to shift its economy to a military footing, produce weapons, and invest money from energy resources in the war.”He added that the same dynamic applies to China, noting that Western economies are too dependent on Beijing to apply real pressure: “They fear that their economy will simply collapse from a social point of view if cooperation with Beijing ends.”“In other words, the West has little desire to finance Ukraine, there is no pressure on China, and sanctions cannot change Putin’s point of view. So why should Putin discuss anything with them? You can discuss anything, but to end the war, you need real pressure on Russia,” he concluded.The comments come ahead of the Trump–Putin summit in Anchorage, which has sparked pro-Ukraine demonstrations. Following the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron are set to meet to discuss the outcome.