Trump, Putin to meet in Alaska for Ukraine peace talks

Washington [US], August 9: U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine on August 15 in Alaska, Trump said on Friday.
Trump made the announcement on social media after he said that the parties, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, were close to a ceasefire deal that could resolve the three-and-a-half-year conflict, one that could require Ukraine to surrender significant territory.
Addressing reporters at the White House earlier on Friday, Trump suggested an agreement would involve some exchange of land.
"There'll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both," the Republican president said.
In his evening address to the nation on Friday, Zelenskiy said it was possible to achieve a ceasefire as long as adequate pressure was applied to Russia.
He said he had held more than a dozen conversations with leaders of different countries and his team was in constant contact with the United States.
Putin claims four Ukrainian regions - Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson - as well as the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which he annexed in 2014. His forces do not fully control all the territory in the four regions.
Earlier, Bloomberg News reported that U.S. and Russian officials were working towards an agreement that would lock in Moscow's occupation of territory seized during its military invasion.
A White House official said the Bloomberg story was speculation.
A Kremlin spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Reuters was unable to confirm aspects of the Bloomberg report.
Ukraine has previously signaled a willingness to be flexible in the search for an end to a war that has ravaged its towns and cities and killed large numbers of its soldiers and citizens.
But accepting the loss of around a fifth of Ukraine's territory would be painful and politically challenging for Zelenskiy and his government.
Tyson Barker, the U.S. State Department's former deputy special representative for Ukraine's economic recovery, said the peace proposal as outlined in the Bloomberg report would be immediately rejected by the Ukrainians.
"The best the Ukrainians can do is remain firm in their objections and their conditions for a negotiated settlement, while demonstrating their gratitude for American support," said Barker, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council.
Under the putative deal, according to Bloomberg, Russia would halt its offensive in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions along current battle lines.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Corporation