Which territories in Ukraine would be targeted by a possible “exchange”, within the Trump-Putin summit. Kiev rejects any transfer
There are tensions before the meeting scheduled on Friday, in Alaska, between US President Donald Trump and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin. It is the first direct meeting between the two at the beginning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, in 2022, and the central theme is to find a solution for the end of the war.
Is the first direct meeting between the two leaders in 2022. Photo: Facebook
Donald Trump said the negotiations will be based on a “exchange of territories ” between Ukraine and Russia, “For the benefit of both parties.” Russia currently controls about 20% of the Ukrainian territory, including Lugansk, much of Donets, Zaporojie, Herson and the Crimea Peninsula, annexed in 2014.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Vladimir Putin would be arranged for a complete ceasefire if Ukraine would withdraw its troops from all over the Donetk region, which would allow Russia to control Donbas. The proposal also includes freezing the front line before final peace negotiations.
Sources quoted by the international press claim that the partially occupied regions of southern Ukraine, Herson and Zaporojie are also part of Moscow's calculations, forming a strategic terrestrial corridor between Donbas and Crimea.
The Russian plan proposed to Donald Trump arouses concerns in Kyiv and European capitals. The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, the United Kingdom and the European Commission have transmitted in a common statement that the current contact line must be the starting point of any negotiation.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski reaffirmed that Ukraine “He will not abandon the lands of the occupants” and will not withdraw from Donbas. However, geopolitical analysts claim that Kiev could accept the de facto loss of some already under Russian control, but without official legal recognition.
For German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Ukraine “She is ready to discuss territorial issues,” but not “Legal recognition” of Russia's occupation of certain parts of its territory.
In the past, Zelenski has understood that he would consider territorial concessions in exchange for NATO security guarantees – a condition that Trump, in his current term, does not seem to accept.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will meet on Friday in an isolated place in Alaska, at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base, where snow and mountains become an unexpected summit between the leaders of the two superpowers.
