Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Trump and Ukraine: Today Outlines of Peace, Tomorrow Who Knows
The most important outcome of Monday’s White House meetings on Ukraine is that Europe’s leaders helped President Trump back off a debacle of his own making: his acceptance of Vladimir Putin’s terms for peace at last Friday’s hastily concocted U.S.-Russia summit in Anchorage. Trump’s revised position is now that the U.S. is willing to participate in unspecified “security guarantees” for Ukraine.
Two key European nations, the U.K. and France, have said they could deploy ground troops to Ukraine as part of a “reassurance force” if a peace agreement was reached. In one sense, this comports with Trump’s long-standing demand that Europe play a stronger role in collective defense. But it also undermines Trump’s previously expressed desire to settle the war, largely on Putin’s terms.
The key to a final deal is the same one that has been on the table for the more than three years of the war: Ukrainian agreement to cede mostly Russian-speaking lands in eastern Ukraine in exchange for a durable peace guaranteed by the West, with or without formal NATO participation. In the latest meetings, this was delicately termed a “land swap,” but most of the swapping would be at Ukraine’s expense. Russia would pull back from a small amount of territory that its troops control elsewhere in Ukraine.
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky has consistently maintained that he cannot give up any Ukrainian territory. In the latest round of talks he has hinted that he might, but only as part of a final deal with clear security guarantees. At White House meetings Monday, Trump displayed maps to show what some kind of a settlement might look like. What’s notable about the maps is that Russia actually held more Ukrainian territory in 2022, the first year of the war, than it does today, after more than three years of fighting have pushed Russian military holdings back to about 18 percent of Ukraine.
Two key European nations, the U.K. and France, have said they could deploy ground troops to Ukraine as part of a “reassurance force” if a peace agreement was reached. In one sense, this comports with Trump’s long-standing demand that Europe play a stronger role in collective defense. But it also undermines Trump’s previously expressed desire to settle the war, largely on Putin’s terms.
The key to a final deal is the same one that has been on the table for the more than three years of the war: Ukrainian agreement to cede mostly Russian-speaking lands in eastern Ukraine in exchange for a durable peace guaranteed by the West, with or without formal NATO participation. In the latest meetings, this was delicately termed a “land swap,” but most of the swapping would be at Ukraine’s expense. Russia would pull back from a small amount of territory that its troops control elsewhere in Ukraine.
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky has consistently maintained that he cannot give up any Ukrainian territory. In the latest round of talks he has hinted that he might, but only as part of a final deal with clear security guarantees. At White House meetings Monday, Trump displayed maps to show what some kind of a settlement might look like. What’s notable about the maps is that Russia actually held more Ukrainian territory in 2022, the first year of the war, than it does today, after more than three years of fighting have pushed Russian military holdings back to about 18 percent of Ukraine.
https://prospect.org/world/2025-08-19-trump-zelensky-ukraine-today-outlines-of-peace/]