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News analysis
In Alaska, the Russian leader proposed that Ukraine hand over the remainder of the Donbas region to Moscow to stop the fighting.
Aug. 18, 2025, 5:03 a.m. ET
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has shifted President Trump’s attention back to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine by making a proposal for territory that is fraught with security and political risk for Kyiv.
Along with other demands, Mr. Putin proposed that Ukraine hand over the remainder of the Donbas region to Moscow, and in exchange Russia would stop fighting along the rest of the front, Mr. Trump told European leaders in a call after meeting with Mr. Putin in Alaska. Mr. Trump backed the idea of Ukraine’s ceding territory to freeze the war.
In a meeting on Monday at the White House, Mr. Zelensky will be forced to contend with the Russian proposal and the possibility that Mr. Trump could return to viewing him as an obstacle to peace.
After the Alaska summit Friday, Mr. Trump said it would be up to Mr. Zelensky, who has rejected the idea of ceding territory outright, to make a deal to end the war.
“It’s a very smart ploy by Putin,” said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. Mr. Gabuev said the proposal could be a “poison pill” designed to weaken Ukraine internally or get Mr. Trump to walk away from Mr. Zelensky if he refuses.
Ukraine’s Constitution bars ceding territory apart from through a nationwide referendum. A recent poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that 78 percent of Ukrainians were against transferring territory controlled by Ukraine to Russia.
The Kremlin typically sees the Donbas as comprising the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine. Moscow has taken nearly all of Luhansk, but despite trying for more than a decade, it hasn’t managed to wrest full control of the Donetsk region. Ukraine still controls more than 2,500 square miles of territory there.
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It has strategic value for Ukraine. Two cities, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, have served as a Ukrainian military hub since Russia mounted a hybrid invasion of the area in 2014 and are among the most heavily fortified parts of the front. If Ukrainian forces were to fall back, they would lose those defenses. At least 200,000 Ukrainians also still live on the land.
“Some of Ukraine’s strongest defensive positions are in Donetsk, and ceding those defenses would position Russia to reattack in the future from a much more advantageous position,” said David Shimer, who led Ukraine policy on the White House National Security Council during the Biden administration. Ceding the region, he said, would be a “massive concession.”
In talks with American officials this year, Russian negotiators had been demanding the full territory of all four Ukrainian regions that the Kremlin declared annexed in 2022 — Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — even though Kyiv still controls much of the land.
“It’s smart negotiation tactics,” said Mr. Gabuev, the Carnegie analyst, who noted that Mr. Trump views Mr. Putin’s proposal involving just two of those regions as a concession, even if it’s still “really unrealistic.”
Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s special envoy, told CNN on Sunday that the Russian leader had already made territorial concessions in talks with U.S. officials but that “there is an important discussion to be had with regard to Donetsk.” He said that discussion would take place on Monday during Mr. Trump’s meeting with Mr. Zelensky and European officials.
“Hopefully, we can cut through and make some decisions right then and there on that,” Mr. Witkoff said. He said that Mr. Trump could not agree to any land swaps on Ukraine’s behalf and that it was up to the Ukrainians to decide what they can “live with.”
Mr. Witkoff also said Mr. Putin had agreed to the United States’ providing a security guarantee to Kyiv, so long as it doesn’t involve NATO membership for Ukraine.
It is unclear what land Russia would give in return for the Donbas. It could be limited to the territory Moscow is occupying in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions, which the Kremlin hasn’t declared to be annexed. Russia holds only about 660 square miles of Ukrainian territory in those areas.
There are also signs that Russian forces are aiming to expand the territory they hold in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson as talks unfold, according to Ukrainian officials and soldiers on the front.
Ukrainian intelligence agencies say that so far there appears to be no deviation from Russia’s battle plans after the summit, according to a senior Ukrainian military official.
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By the end of the summer, Ukrainian officials believe Russian forces hope to make significant advances in the Donetsk region, including by fully blockading Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
A sudden Russian advance last week southwest of Kramatorsk briefly raised fears of crumbling Ukrainian defensive lines. The breakthrough has since been blunted.
Troops seemed largely uninterested in news from the summit, said one Ukrainian soldier from the First Corps Azov of the Ukrainian National Guard stationed near the area of Russia’s advance.
Whatever the presidents discussed, Moscow’s grinding advance continues, he said. In the two days since the summit, soldiers said, Russian forces have begun to attack more frequently there, though at a steep cost of 60 to 70 Russians a day.
Paul Sonne is an international correspondent, focusing on Russia and the varied impacts of President Vladimir V. Putin’s domestic and foreign policies, with a focus on the war against Ukraine.
Michael Schwirtz is the global intelligence correspondent for The Times based in London.
