Key Point:
Under the proposal being floated by the Trump administration, Russia would agree to a freeze of the war along the contact line in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where Moscow controls less land than in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, a person familiar with the matter told POLITICO.
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This is consistent with the first report, which was attacked by media preference.
IT IS A WASHINGTON PROPOSAL. That was the original wording. It is not a proposal from Russia. They declared themselves largely in agreement with it, but the proposal itself was carried from Washington by Witkoff.
This could have been months ago. One wonders if other envoys saw fit to edit Trump’s preferences in what they proposed.
Oh and btw, this is a “Territory Swap” as Trump is wording it because:
The northern oblasts that voted to join Russia . . .they will be Russian 100%. The southern oblasts also voted to join Russia but they are less liberated/occupied and this is a Russia concession. Rather than demand all that territory of those oblasts that voted to join Russia 100%, the Kremlin is willing to accept the line of combat, which would trade away some small chunk of that land as a concession.
Hence territory swap. We do not know anything about the territory north near Sumy and Kharkiv. One would presume Russia will trade away the Sumy area land they have in return for all of Kharkiv, but there has been no commentary on this area of de facto land transfer.