“Of course there must be peace conversations about Ukraine, but not. “But hopefully, hopefully, something positive comes out,” added a second later. , has been received with a mixture of hope, skepticism, opposition and protests in this city that one day was Russian territory – and where sympathies firmly fall on the Ukrainian side.
Throughout this Friday, more than a dozen protests have been convened in several points of this city of 290,000 inhabitants and the rest of Alaska, the state of greatest extension and less densely populated in the United States, against the presence of the two leaders and to claim that it does not reach. About a thousand Ukrainian refugees have settled in Alaska fleeing from the war.
While the US president landed at the Elmendorf-Richardson Air Base, several dozen people demonstrated at the entrance of these military facilities, with songs, sunflowers-Ukraine Mamblema-posters with messages such as “Alaska, next to Ukraine” or “Putin, war criminal”, and the blue and yellow flags of the invaded country.
“Our goal is to transmit solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Ukraine, so that they know that we have all seen with horror how it was invaded more than three years ago,” says Nicole Collins, of the Ketchikan Mayday for Democracy group, one of the organizers of the protests.
Around two o’clock in the afternoon, local time, several dozens of attendees deployed “the largest flag of Ukraine outside Ukraine,” according to the organizers of the act. The place chosen was the Park of Laney, a green space that runs through the center of this city, the largest of the state, between the waters of the Cook’s Ensenada and the Chugach mountains. Shortly after, both delegations concluded the meeting.
Other residents expressed their opposition, not so much to the summit itself, but to the presence of Trump: although Alaska voted Republican in a very majority way in the 2024 elections, in Anchorage the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, was imposed.
“This city already has enough problems. Will you take care of them?” Deanna, another client of the cafeteria, said while pointing to one of the groups of homeless people who swarmed early in the morning through the streets of the Office of the Office of Anchorage. Official figures place the number of homeless, but local organizations estimate that the real number is around 4,000.
Deanna admits to having voted to Trump in the November elections, but is declared skeptical about the now president and his social services cuts. “It is not that last year we had many options. I voted for Trump because he is an entrepreneur and promised efficiency. But in the end, everyone ends up doing what they want and we are the people on foot who paid the duck,” said this administrative company in a logistics company.
Anchorage has been surprised by the summit in full boiling of a tourist season that had already overwhelmed its few hotels. The authorities have had to find creative solutions to welcome the masses of journalists and delegates arrived for the event. Part of the respective delegations of the two presidents rest in the facilities of the University of Alaska, a few kilometers from the military base where the appointment of the leaders and an area where the apartments blocks warn their residents that they leave the doors well closed when leaving or entering: “Recent bear activity has been detected” takes place.
Without available rooms, the more than a hundred Russian reporters who accompany the arrival delegation of Moscow have been housed in a sports hall with capacity for 5,000 people, the same where a temporary shelter was established during the toughest times of the Covid pandemic. Their communications are also limited: due to international sanctions, the services of roaming Telephone do not work. And Russia blocks calls from messaging applications such as WhatsApp.
