President Donald Trump said the United States is aiming to reach a deal to halt Russia’s war on Ukraine that would include “some swapping of territories.”
At an Aug. 8 White House signing event on a peace deal between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Trump teased that a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin could be imminent. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “wants to see peace,” and both Russia and Ukraine will have to give up territory, Trump said.
“You are looking at territory that has been fought over for 3.5 years,” the two-term Republican U.S. president said. “We’re looking at that. But we’re looking at swapping. We’re going to get some back,” referring to Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia. “We’re going to get some switched. They’ll be some swapping of territories.”
U.S. and Russian officials have been working towards an agreement on territories for a planned summit meeting between Trump and Putin. Bloomberg cited unnamed sources who indicated the U.S. is working to get buy-in from Ukraine and its European allies on the deal – which is far from certain, the sources told Bloomberg.
A White House official said the Bloomberg story was speculation. A Kremlin spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
During the Aug. 8 meeting at the White House with Azerbaijan and Armenian leaders, Trump told reporters he would be meeting with Putin “very shortly” and said he would soon announce the location.
“I’ll be meeting very shortly with President Putin. It would have been sooner, but I guess there are security arrangements that unfortunately people have to make,” Trump said.
Will Ukraine agree to give up territory?
Earlier, in an apparent response to the Bloomberg reporting, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “the United States is determined to achieve a ceasefire, and we must jointly support all constructive steps.”
“A dignified, reliable and lasting peace can only be the result of our joint efforts,” Zelenskyy said.
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.
Ukraine has previously signalled 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 Zelenskyy and his government, according to Tyson Barker, the U.S. State Department’s former deputy special representative for Ukraine’s economic recovery.
Barker said the proposal, as outlined by Bloomberg, 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.
Are Trump and Putin alinged on Ukraine?
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has moved to mend relations with Russia and sought to end the war. In his public comments he has veered between admiration and sharp criticism of Putin.
In a sign of his growing frustration with Putin’s refusal to halt Russia’s military offensive, Trump has threatened to impose new sanctions and tariffs from Friday against Moscow and countries that buy its exports unless the Russian leader agrees to end the 3-1/2 year conflict, the deadliest in Europe since World War Two.
But with the Putin-Trump summit expected in the coming days, it is unclear whether those sanctions will take effect or will be delayed or cancelled.
The administration took a step toward punishing Moscow’s oil customers on August 6, imposing an additional 25% tariff on goods from India over its imports of Russian oil, marking the first financial penalty aimed at Russia in Trump’s second term.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff held three hours of talks with Putin in Moscow on Wednesday that both sides described as constructive.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, a close ally of Ukraine, said earlier on August 8 that a pause in the conflict could be close. He was speaking after talks with Zelenskyy.
Trump brokered a deal to end three decades of conflict between Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan on Aug. 8, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed the agreement at the White House.
Contributing: Reuters.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump teases imminent summit with Russia’s Putin, location TBD
