Latest news with #Moscow-friendly
New York Post
a day ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Putin's biggest demand involves Ukraine surrendering Donetsk, its most fortified region
Ukraine's most heavily fortified region has become the center-point for peace talks to end the war with Russian leader Vladimir Putin reportedly demanding that Kyiv cede the entire territory to Moscow. But the Donestk oblast — which is smaller than Massachusetts and home to about 4 million people — has been at the center of some of the most brutal fighting of the war, and the Kremlin has not been able to take the entire region after more than three and a half years. A source familiar with Friday's meeting between Putin and President Trump described negotiations over the fate of Donetsk as 'the ball game.' 'Every issue is an ancillary issue, except Donetsk,' the source previously told The Post. Ukrainian officials and western observers say giving up the territory without a fight should be a nonstarter. George Barros, the Russian team head for the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think tank, said conceding the land would be playing right into Putin's hands and leave Ukraine susceptible for a future assault. He called such a move a 'foolish proposition.' 4 Russian leader Vladimir Putin reportedly told President Trump he was open to a cease-fire with Ukraine so long as Kyiv gives up the entire Donbas region. POOL/AFP via Getty Images 4 Donbas harbors Donetsk, Ukraine's most heavily fortified region that has repelled Russia's forces for more than a decade. Getty Images Russia has been desperate for full control of the coal and mineral-rich Donetsk border region since Moscow backed a rebellion by Moscow-friendly leaders in the oblast in 2014. The Kremlin's troops currently occupy about 70% of Donetsk. Russian control of other contested regions, including Luhansk, is more complete. Moscow had previously recognized the regions as the 'Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republic' before launching the 2022 invasion. 4 Russia has mounted several assaults to try and conquer all of Donetsk, which has seen some of the most intense fighting of the war. REUTERS Despite its advancements in the frontlines, Russia has found it increasingly difficult to take all of Donetsk, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asserting that his forces still hold the strategic cities of Sloviansk and Kramators, which have served as a 'fortress belt' guarding against Moscow's fighters. Moscow's inability to make proper advances and maintain the territory it's taken so far in Donetsk has revealed clear weaknesses in Putin's army, leading the Russian strongman to wager the whole region for the West's desire for a cease-fire, Barros said. 'Putin wants the territory that he hasn't been able to get in more than three years of fighting, land that would take more than a year of fighting and suffering more losses to get,' he said. 'It makes sense for him to demand something like this.' 4 Russia continues to struggle to keep all the land it has taken in Donetsk, with Ukraine's army regularly pushing back the invaders in a months-long quagmire. REUTERS Putin reportedly told Trump his forces could conquer Donetsk by October if Ukraine didn't give up the land as part of a peace deal — but Kyiv and US observers point out that the Kremlin has failed to take it for more than a decade. 'Even if we're being generous to the Russians and say they can maintain their current advance, which we know they can't keep up and have been pushed back from… It would take about 475 days for Russia to take the entirety of Donetsk, that's December 2026,' Barros said. One American veteran serving in the Ukrainian Armed Services scoffed, 'Donetsk by October? They've been saying that since February of '22.' Not only would conceding Donetsk give Putin the win he's desired for years, but it would also remove Ukraine's critical defense from the battlefield. If Russia's invading army is allowed to stroll through Donetsk, Ukraine would have to 'urgently build up massive defensive fortifications along the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast border areas, whose terrain is poorly suited to act as a defensive line,' the ISW warned. The think tank ultimately concluded that if Donetsk is lost, Russia would have the perfect launching point to mount its next attack from.
Yahoo
12-08-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump and Putin to meet one-on-one in Alaska
Donald Trump will meet with Vladimir Putin 'one-on-one' in Alaska, the White House has confirmed. The two leaders will not be flanked by their advisers when they come face-to-face for a highly-anticipated meeting in Anchorage on Friday to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, Mr Trump's press secretary said. Tempering expectations of the leaders making a breakthrough, Karoline Leavitt insisted the summit was a 'listening exercise' for Mr Trump. '...the goal of this meeting for the president is to walk away with a better understanding of how we can end this war,' Ms Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday. 'It is a listening exercise for the president. Look, only one party that's involved in this war is going to be present, and so this is for the president to go and to get, again, a more firm and better understanding of how we can hopefully bring this war to an end,' she added. Asked if the pair were meeting one-on-one, she added: 'That's part of the plan'. Volodymyr Zelensky's exclusion from the talks has fuelled fears that Mr Trump and Putin will agree to terms to ending the war which are unfavourable for Ukraine. Ukraine could agree to stop fighting and cede territory already held by Russia as part of a European-backed plan for peace, The Telegraph revealed. This would mean freezing the front line where it is and handing Russia de facto control of the territory it occupies in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea. Just days before the pair arrive in Alaska, a state whose closest point to Russia is only three miles across the Bering Strait, Mr Zelensky claimed Putin was preparing for a new offensive. 'We see that the Russian army is not preparing to end the war,' he wrote on X. 'On the contrary, they are making movements that indicate preparations for new offensive operations. In such circumstances, it is important that the unity of the world is not threatened.' While the White House has not divulged Putin's demands, it has continued to manage expectations over the outcome of the talks. On Monday, Mr Trump described the summit as a 'feel-out meeting', suggesting he would be able to gauge if Putin was serious about peace within minutes. 'I think the president of the United States getting in the room with the president of Russia sitting face-to-face, rather than speaking over the telephone, will give this president the best indication of how to end this war and where this is headed,' Mrs Leavitt added. European diplomats say there has been no notable change in Putin's overall war aims, which are to topple Mr Zelensky's government and replace it with a Moscow-friendly proxy. European leaders are expected to hold talks with Mr Trump on Wednesday to make their case and outline concerns to him.
Daily Mirror
11-08-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Ukraine prepared to give up territory ahead of Trump-Putin peace talks
Volodymyr Zelensky has told European leaders they must reject any settlement proposed by Donald Trump in which Ukraine gives up further territory - but with a condition Ukraine could agree to stop fighting and give up territory already held by Russia as part of a European-backed plan for peace, it has tonight emerged. European leaders have been told by Volodymyr Zelensky they must reject any settlement proposed by Donald Trump in which Ukraine cedes further land - but that Russia could be allowed to retain some of the territory it has taken. But this would mean freezing the frontline where it is and handing Russia de facto control of the territory it occupies in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea. It comes after Vladimir Putin warned of nuclear war when he unleashed another night of hell on Ukraine. Mr Trump and Mr Putin are set to hold talks in Alaska on Friday. Ukraine and Europe have become increasingly concerned Mr Trump and Mr Putin could negotiate an end to the long-running war over Mr Zelensky's head. But the latest development - the European-backed plan for peace - softens the negotiating position. Characterising a frantic weekend of diplomacy between Kyiv and its allies, a Western official said: "The plan can only be related to the current positions held by the militaries." It is believed US officials have pledged to consult European leaders ahead of the face-to-face talks between Mr Trump and Mr Putin. Speaking today, Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, said: "I have many fears and a lot of hope." Chief among European concerns was a purported peace plan endorsed by Moscow, which included freezing the frontlines in south-eastern Ukraine if Kyiv agreed to withdraw from areas of Donetsk and Luhansk that it controls. European diplomats say there has been no notable change in Mr Putin's overall war aims, which seek to topple Ukraine's Western-facing government and replace it with a Moscow-friendly proxy. Russia is still aiming for the "full capitulation" of Kyiv, including blocking any prospect of Nato membership and demilitarisation, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War, the Washington-based think tank. On Monday evening, Mr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said there were no signs Russia was preparing to bring an end to the war despite the looming peace talks. Citing a report from Ukraine's intelligence, Mr Zelensky said: "On the contrary, they are moving their troops and forces in such a way as to launch new offensive operations." While seemingly content with ceding some territory, it is thought Ukraine will only agree to a peace settlement that offers robust security guarantees in the form of weapons deliveries and a path to Nato membership.
Sydney Morning Herald
08-08-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
For Putin, Trump summit is key to securing Ukraine goals
Trump had told European leaders that he intended to meet Putin and then follow up shortly afterward by meeting both Putin and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, together. However, a Kremlin aide said on Thursday that Moscow had not agreed to a three-way meeting. 'That option was simply mentioned by the American representative during the course of conversation at the Kremlin,' Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy aide, told reporters. He said Moscow was 'completely without comment' on the idea of a three-way summit and that it had not been discussed 'concretely' with Witkoff. Hours later, Putin said he was not opposed to meeting Zelensky – a prospect Ukraine's leader has repeatedly requested – but reiterated that 'certain conditions' must be met before such a meeting can take place. 'We are unfortunately, at the moment, far away from those conditions,' Putin said. Since initiating a rapprochement with the Kremlin in January, the Trump administration had been holding out on agreeing to a summit with Putin, looking for a sign from the Kremlin that the Russian leader was, in fact, serious about a real ceasefire on the battlefield. The White House's sudden commitment to hold a summit has raised questions about what, if anything, Putin agreed to on Wednesday during his talks in Moscow with Witkoff. 'Putin doesn't keep a preprepared plan. He lives for today. He knows what he wants to get in the end.' Tatiana Stanovaya, Carnegie Moscow Eurasia Centre Exactly what the two men discussed is unclear. Ushakov told reporters on Wednesday that Putin had conveyed certain 'signals' to Witkoff on Ukraine, but the Kremlin aide did not go into detail. One possibility is that Putin signalled more flexibility on the issue of how land could be divided up or traded in any settlement between Russia and Ukraine. For months, Russian envoys have insisted in talks with US counterparts that Moscow be given the entirety of the four regions that the Kremlin claimed to have 'annexed' from Ukraine in late 2022 even though vast swaths of the territory remained under Ukrainian control. US negotiators viewed that position as unreasonable and saw it as a sign that Moscow wasn't serious about negotiating an end to the war. Some analysts suggested Putin had told envoys during talks this year to stick only to the hardest-line position, in order to force a meeting between him and Trump. Russian officials may be hoping that a one-on-one summit will give Putin an opportunity to sway Trump, long sympathetic to Russia, back to supporting the Russian leader's views on what he calls 'the root causes of the conflict'. People close to the Kremlin, as well as political analysts, say Putin's demands – to exclude Ukraine from NATO, limit Ukrainian military capabilities and lay the groundwork for a more Moscow-friendly government in Ukraine – are more crucial to him than the specifics of what territory Russia ultimately controls. 'The most important thing for Putin is NATO and these ironclad guarantees that Ukraine will not be in NATO and that NATO countries will not develop a military presence inside Ukraine, plus a set of political demands on Ukraine itself,' said Tatiana Stanovaya, senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Eurasia Centre. Other demands, she added, might be open to negotiation. Moscow has not formally demarcated the borders of the four 'annexed' regions, which Stanovaya said suggested there had always been some flexibility on the land issue. She didn't exclude the possibility that Russia would be open to exchanging certain territories. Loading Some analysts believe Russian-controlled land in regions of Ukraine that Moscow has not 'annexed' would be most likely to be offered for exchange in negotiations. Russia holds 1719 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory in the regions of Kharkiv and Sumy – neither of which has been 'annexed' by Russia – according to DeepState, a Ukrainian group that maps the conflict using combat footage. But Putin 'doesn't keep a preprepared plan', Stanovaya said. 'He lives for today. He knows what he wants to get in the end.' In this case, she said, what Russia's leader wants is for Ukraine to stop being what he sees as an 'anti-Russia project' and to return to Moscow's sphere of influence. 'So, either he achieves this through NATO guarantees, that is, guarantees from the West, or he achieves this through political control within Ukraine,' Stanovaya said. 'One or the other, or both. Then, we'll see how it goes. Territory is very secondary.' 'We could fight some more' There is little indication that, despite increasing threats from the White House, Putin has abandoned his hard-line goals. Russian forces have the advantage on the battlefield, so a decision by Putin to settle rather than try to conquer more of Ukraine should be seen as a concession in itself, said Feodor Voitolovsky, director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, a Russian government-funded research group. 'We could fight some more, wait a few more months and achieve even greater, more serious results on the battlefield,' said Voitolovsky who serves on advisory boards at the Russian Foreign Ministry and Security Council. But while Russian forces have been advancing in Ukraine since launching a summer offensive, they have suffered significant losses and are far from seizing the entirety of the four 'annexed' regions. Stanovaya said Putin would prefer the capitulation of Zelensky, under pressure from Trump, so Russian forces can stop fighting. But the logic of Russia's leader, she said, is 'we will get what we want at any cost', regardless of the economic or societal toll.
The Age
08-08-2025
- Politics
- The Age
For Putin, Trump summit is key to securing Ukraine goals
Trump had told European leaders that he intended to meet Putin and then follow up shortly afterward by meeting both Putin and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, together. However, a Kremlin aide said on Thursday that Moscow had not agreed to a three-way meeting. 'That option was simply mentioned by the American representative during the course of conversation at the Kremlin,' Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy aide, told reporters. He said Moscow was 'completely without comment' on the idea of a three-way summit and that it had not been discussed 'concretely' with Witkoff. Hours later, Putin said he was not opposed to meeting Zelensky – a prospect Ukraine's leader has repeatedly requested – but reiterated that 'certain conditions' must be met before such a meeting can take place. 'We are unfortunately, at the moment, far away from those conditions,' Putin said. Since initiating a rapprochement with the Kremlin in January, the Trump administration had been holding out on agreeing to a summit with Putin, looking for a sign from the Kremlin that the Russian leader was, in fact, serious about a real ceasefire on the battlefield. The White House's sudden commitment to hold a summit has raised questions about what, if anything, Putin agreed to on Wednesday during his talks in Moscow with Witkoff. 'Putin doesn't keep a preprepared plan. He lives for today. He knows what he wants to get in the end.' Tatiana Stanovaya, Carnegie Moscow Eurasia Centre Exactly what the two men discussed is unclear. Ushakov told reporters on Wednesday that Putin had conveyed certain 'signals' to Witkoff on Ukraine, but the Kremlin aide did not go into detail. One possibility is that Putin signalled more flexibility on the issue of how land could be divided up or traded in any settlement between Russia and Ukraine. For months, Russian envoys have insisted in talks with US counterparts that Moscow be given the entirety of the four regions that the Kremlin claimed to have 'annexed' from Ukraine in late 2022 even though vast swaths of the territory remained under Ukrainian control. US negotiators viewed that position as unreasonable and saw it as a sign that Moscow wasn't serious about negotiating an end to the war. Some analysts suggested Putin had told envoys during talks this year to stick only to the hardest-line position, in order to force a meeting between him and Trump. Russian officials may be hoping that a one-on-one summit will give Putin an opportunity to sway Trump, long sympathetic to Russia, back to supporting the Russian leader's views on what he calls 'the root causes of the conflict'. People close to the Kremlin, as well as political analysts, say Putin's demands – to exclude Ukraine from NATO, limit Ukrainian military capabilities and lay the groundwork for a more Moscow-friendly government in Ukraine – are more crucial to him than the specifics of what territory Russia ultimately controls. 'The most important thing for Putin is NATO and these ironclad guarantees that Ukraine will not be in NATO and that NATO countries will not develop a military presence inside Ukraine, plus a set of political demands on Ukraine itself,' said Tatiana Stanovaya, senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Eurasia Centre. Other demands, she added, might be open to negotiation. Moscow has not formally demarcated the borders of the four 'annexed' regions, which Stanovaya said suggested there had always been some flexibility on the land issue. She didn't exclude the possibility that Russia would be open to exchanging certain territories. Loading Some analysts believe Russian-controlled land in regions of Ukraine that Moscow has not 'annexed' would be most likely to be offered for exchange in negotiations. Russia holds 1719 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory in the regions of Kharkiv and Sumy – neither of which has been 'annexed' by Russia – according to DeepState, a Ukrainian group that maps the conflict using combat footage. But Putin 'doesn't keep a preprepared plan', Stanovaya said. 'He lives for today. He knows what he wants to get in the end.' In this case, she said, what Russia's leader wants is for Ukraine to stop being what he sees as an 'anti-Russia project' and to return to Moscow's sphere of influence. 'So, either he achieves this through NATO guarantees, that is, guarantees from the West, or he achieves this through political control within Ukraine,' Stanovaya said. 'One or the other, or both. Then, we'll see how it goes. Territory is very secondary.' 'We could fight some more' There is little indication that, despite increasing threats from the White House, Putin has abandoned his hard-line goals. Russian forces have the advantage on the battlefield, so a decision by Putin to settle rather than try to conquer more of Ukraine should be seen as a concession in itself, said Feodor Voitolovsky, director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, a Russian government-funded research group. 'We could fight some more, wait a few more months and achieve even greater, more serious results on the battlefield,' said Voitolovsky who serves on advisory boards at the Russian Foreign Ministry and Security Council. But while Russian forces have been advancing in Ukraine since launching a summer offensive, they have suffered significant losses and are far from seizing the entirety of the four 'annexed' regions. Stanovaya said Putin would prefer the capitulation of Zelensky, under pressure from Trump, so Russian forces can stop fighting. But the logic of Russia's leader, she said, is 'we will get what we want at any cost', regardless of the economic or societal toll.
