Posted on 08/17/2025 12:12:15 PM PDT by marcusmaximus
Kyiv will not give up land that Moscow troops aren’t occupying as part of any peace deal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demands.
Speaking ahead of his meeting with President Trump on Monday, Zelensky told reporters in Brussels that while Kyiv would be open to “land swaps” in exchange for peace, Putin’s demands to cede the entirety of the Donetsk region — including parts under Ukrainian control — is off the table.
“We need real negotiations, which means they can start where the front line is now,” Zelensky said. “The contact line is the best line for talking.
“Russia is still unsuccessful in the Donetsk region,” he added. “Putin has been unable to take it for 12 years, and the Constitution of Ukraine makes it impossible to give up territory or trade land.”
During his summit with Trump on Friday, Putin demanded that Ukraine withdraw all its forces from Donetsk and the neighboring Luhanks region, both of which lie along the eastern border, as one of the main conditions for ending the war.
While Russia currently controls a large swath of land across both regions, Ukraine has been able to keep Moscow’s forces from claiming the entire regions for more than three years.
Kyiv still holds the key cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, with hundreds of Moscow’s troops killed or injured every week in the quagmire.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I read the whole article. I have been Listening to talking heads and experts now for two days. I still don’t know what Russia is conceding as a quid pro quo to them expecting Ukraine to give up territory Russia does not even now hold.
Is the Russian concession to allow Ukraine and others defend against further Russian aggression? That’s it?
Compromise is for Russia to win?
“Is the Russian concession to allow Ukraine and others defend against further Russian aggression? That’s it?”
I think that about sums it up.
He is not much of a negotiator. On the bright side. We may be closer to peace than if he was.
That Trump. He is some negotiator.
What happened to the land “exchange”?
Is there going ot be one of those world famous “non-aggression” pacts? Those work out so well with the likes of Putin. He had a good teacher.
Pretty amazing isn’t it? I have an acquaintance who worked in Russia and thinks they are just a step above Cro-Magnon man and yet he favors them against Ukraine. “Ukraine asked for it.” but can’t explain that statement. He calls them Nazis. The only reason I can se is that he hates bidet, so do I but....
Ukraine are the party in the wrong? I don’t care for Z’s methods and his manner but what would we be willing to do in a fight for survival against a much larger and more powerful foe?
Prove it is wrong.
“Ukraine are the party in the wrong? I don’t care for Z’s methods and his manner but what would we be willing to do in a fight for survival against a much larger and more powerful foe?”
*from 2014*
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 5 September, although hundreds of people have been killed since then.
Fighting erupted in April after pro-Russian separatists seized control in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
More than 4,000 people have died in eastern Ukraine since the conflict began and the European OSCE monitoring mission has warned that the “bloodletting” is still going on, with numerous incidents of shelling.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29912055
Is that weird that after all this fighting and all this territory seized by Russia they still don’t control half of Donetsk Oblast?
The continuing problem of failing to learn history... There’s a reason why Russia is willing to settle for the east of the Dnieper. It was part of Russia from 1764 to the 1900s.
.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novorossiya
Good point, but if Russia were eliminated as a threat then we would not need NATO and everyone else in the world would be better off. Solving the Russian problem would save us far more money than the pittance we pay to help Ukraine.
I also think 1 million Russian casualties is too much. I’ve only heard of 1 “draft” since 2022. So if Russia started with 200,000 soldiers ready to invade Ukraine in 2022, one draft implies Russia needed at most 200,000 more soldiers to replace the initial 200,000 soldiers.
Just what I was thinking. Quite the concession.
That is mind boggling. Lost 1 million! Their population is not growing. I mean how much longer could they keep this up?
Mediazona, run by Russian dissent in collaboration with the pro-Ukraine BBC, can only document 122,507 deaths total in the entire war.
Russia gave Ukraine 1245 bodies in the recent body exchange between the two countries and only received 78 in return.
Consolidating all the info and discarding most of it, as best I can tell Witkoff took an offer to Moscow which was to offer Nato-like security guarantees to Ukraine.
Putin and Lavrov said this was acceptable, though the details of what that meant were undefined.
It was THIS bit of progress from Witkof that generated Alaska. And Alaska generated the panic in Europe that brought them to Washington today.
That is essentially all that is known.
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