Direct negotiations between the US and Russia are shaping the prospect of Ukraine ceding territory, solidifying Russia’s gains on the ground, even if Donald Trump is using more cautious language. “There’ll be some swapping of territories, to the betterment of both,” the US president said at the White House on Friday, August 8, before announcing a summit with Putin in Alaska on August 15, aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
“The highly anticipated meeting between myself, as President of the United States of America, and President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, will take place next Friday, August 15, 2025, in the Great State of Alaska. Further details to follow,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network Friday afternoon. Moscow has confirmed the summit, which comes after the US president’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, traveled to Moscow on Wednesday, August 6, for a roughly three-hour meeting with Putin.
The Russian president was reportedly ready for a full ceasefire if Ukraine agreed to withdraw its forces from the entire eastern Donetsk region, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Russia would then control the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized in 2014. According to the WSJ, the fate of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, which Russian troops partially occupy, is less clear. American negotiators have debated whether Moscow, which also claims these two regions, intends to freeze the front line or partially withdraw – which might allow for use, as Trump does, of the term “exchange.”
You have 68.55% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
