Juneau protesters at peak ire about Trump-Putin summit
- Mark Sabbatini
- Aug 15
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 16
About 150 people join statewide demonstrations opposing leaders of U.S. and Russia meeting without Ukraine present to discuss peace deal
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
A U.S.-Russia summit in Anchorage ended early with no deals announced about the war in Ukraine, but for about 150 protesters in Juneau the real failure was the summit itself.
The protest was among more than 15 rallies planned statewide opposing U.S. President Donald Trump hosting Russian President Vladmir Putin for a meeting purportedly intended to negotiate an end to Russia’s three-year invasion of Ukraine.
People in Juneau gathering at Overstreet Park noted Putin faces arrest in more than 120 countries under a warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) — which the U.S. is not a member of — and Trump didn’t invite Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to participate.
"I'm struck just by how much of a slap in the face this is to all of our neighbors who resettled from Ukraine after the war and the invasion started," said Katie Thomas-Canfield, who works for the International Rescue Committee, a nonprofit providing foreign aid that has been affected by Trump’s funding cuts to USAID. "Alaska was a really natural place for resettlement, just given our previous history as part of the Russian Empire, with similar elements of trade and certain cultural familiarities. And Alaska, as a result, has become home to many Ukrainians."
"And as a result of this administration, we're seeing that many Ukrainian families are under threat of losing their status, of being deported, of being disappeared in the way that we've seen the ICE raids progress throughout the country," she added. "And not only that, now we've invited the person who invaded their country and who forced them to leave without anyone from the Ukrainian side. You cannot have negotiations without both sides of the party present."
About 1,000 Ukrainians fleeing the war in their homeland are in Alaska, including dozens in Juneau, according to media reports during the days before the summit. None of the refugees were seen at the protest, but Olena Zyuba, a Ukrainian who said she still has family in her home country, said her dad is living in Siberia and his experiences under Putin are a cautionary tale.
"The region was economically important even 20 years ago," she said. "Now there is no oil and there is no fish. Nature is destroyed. People moving out. He tells me there's no jobs, no infrastructure. He still lives there because he loves there, but he says the entire Russia is like this. And I believe that if we give power to people like Putin or orange Mussolini" — a reference to Trump — "Alaska will look like that."
Trump stated before the summit that peace would involve "land swaps" between Russia and Ukraine, prompting those opposing the summit to suspect he would essentially agree to let Russia keep most or all of the territory it has seized. Some published reports also stated Trump might offer Putin access to oil and gas sites off Alaska’s coast.
"It is a ridiculous idea," Griffen Plush, a Juneau resident holding a sign reading "Alaska is not your warehouse," told the crowd. "It is an idea that does not respect our statehood, does not respect our community. That we are a bargaining chip, that our resources are a bargaining chip. And it really is something that we see a lot in Trump's foreign policy."
Similar protests were voiced at other events throughout Alaska, but some people also gathered publicly to support Trump, according to the Alaska Beacon. At a counter demonstration in Anchorage, for example, Justin McGhee was holding a “Praying for Trump" sign and said he hoped the summit would be a step toward peace.
“It’s important to support Trump at this time," McGhee told the Beacon. "There’s a lot of stuff going on, a lot of division in the world. And I just think we have to get more united."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
