Trump and Putin to meet in Alaska for Ukraine talks next week
"You're looking at territory that's been fought over for three and a half years, a lot of Russians have died. A lot of Ukrainian have died," Trump said at the White House on Friday."It's very complicated. We're going to get some back, we're going to get some switched. There will be some swapping of territories, to the betterment of both."The US president did not provide further details of what that proposal would look like.However, the BBC's US partner CBS News, citing sources familiar with the discussions, reports that the White House is trying to sway European leaders to accept an agreement that would include Russia taking the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine and keeping Crimea.It would give up Kherson and Zaporizhzhia as part of the proposed agreement, CBS reports.Earlier on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Putin had proposed a similar arrangement to Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff during a recent meeting in Moscow.Ukraine has not responded to those reports or the announcement of a meeting between the US and Russian leaders.It remains unclear whether Ukraine and European allies would agree to such a deal, given Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin remain far apart on the conditions for peace.Zelensky has roundly rejected any preconditions for territorial concessions.One senior White House official told CBS the planning for next Friday's meeting is still fluid, and it is still possible that Zelensky could still be involved in some capacity.Moscow has failed to achieve a decisive breakthrough in its full-scale invasion, but occupies around 20% of Ukraine's territory. Ukrainian offensives, meanwhile, have not pushed the Russian forces back.
Three rounds of direct talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul have failed to bring the war closer to an end. And Moscow's military and political preconditions for peace are seen by Kyiv and its allies as the de facto capitulation of Ukraine.Russian demands include Ukraine becoming a neutral state, dramatically reducing its military and abandoning its Nato aspirations, as well as lifting of international sanctions imposed on Russia.Moscow also wants Ukrainian military withdrawal from its four partly occupied regions in the south-east, and the demobilisation of its soldiers.Trump, however, insisted on Friday that the US had "a shot at" a trilateral peace agreement between the countries. "European leaders want to see peace, President Putin, I believe, wants to see peace, and Zelensky wants to see peace," he told reporters."President Zelensky has to get all of his, everything he needs, because he's going to have to get ready to sign something and I think he's working hard to get that done," Trump said.Last month, Trump admitted to the BBC that after all four of Witkoff's previous visits, Putin had disappointed him after talks had initially led to optimism.He has hardened his stance against the Kremlin in recent weeks, imposing a deadline of Friday for Russia to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine or face more sweeping sanctions.But as the deadline approached, the economic threat was quickly overshadowed by plans for Trump and Putin to meet in person to discuss a potential peace deal.There was no announcement of further sanctions on Russia from the White House on Friday.Trump and Putin spoke by phone in February in the first direct exchange between the leaders of the two countries since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.The last time a US president met Putin was in 2021, when Joe Biden met the Russian president at a summit in Geneva, Switzerland.
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