Fresh off meeting with Putin in Alaska, Trump may pitch Zelenskyy on a land-swap deal
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s so-called Alaska summit on Friday lasted only three hours and failed to produce a peace agreement for Ukraine.
“We didn’t get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there,” President Trump stated in a press conference Saturday at the summit.
Putin’s maximalist intentions in Ukraine don’t appear to have changed much. In the meantime, President Trump backed down from his call for a cease-fire and is instead talking about a more comprehensive peace agreement that would require Ukraine to cede land it still controls in return for security assurances.
For his side, Putin said that if Ukraine completely withdrew from the Donbas region, he would freeze the current war lines. This would entail Ukraine giving up territory in which it continues to fight.
On board Air Force One, President Trump stated, “That will be discussed, but I’ve got to let Ukraine make that decision.”
Kyiv’s response has been alarming. When Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet with European leaders in Washington on Monday, Ukrainian authorities are worried that Trump would drive Zelenskyy into an unjust settlement.
