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Posted on 08/10/2025 1:37:59 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
President Donald Trump suggested ahead of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska this week that Ukraine could cede land to Russia as part of a peace deal — an idea that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky swiftly rejected.
“Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier,” Zelensky said in a video address Saturday. The leaders of Britain and the European Union threw their support behind Ukraine’s president, saying a ceasefire must come before any negotiations.
Trump had said that “some swapping of territories” could be “to the betterment” of both sides.
Ukraine is a vast Eastern European country, covering about 233,000 square miles. If placed over the eastern United States, it would stretch from Missouri to the Atlantic Ocean and from Ohio to Georgia.
Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014. After more than three years of war, Russia controls about a fifth of Ukraine, from the border with Russia to occupied Crimea — including regions that are home to important industries, minerals and Europe’s largest nuclear power station.
Since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia has seized all of the Luhansk region, much of the Donetsk region, large parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and small parts of the Kharkiv region and northern Sumy region, the launch point for Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region last year. Ukraine seized about 500 square miles of Russian territory in the surprise assault, hoping to use it as a bargaining chip in potential peace talks, but now holds just 4 square miles there.
Here’s what to know about the Ukrainian territory under Russian control.
Russia controls all of Luhansk, one of two oblasts, or regions, that make up the heavily industrialized Donbas area. After...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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“My neighbor, who I thought was my friend, negotiated the deal.”
The same tired, old, stupid analogy from you. At least you’re coming back to openly hating President Trump. And Zelensky has always hated Trump and never considered him a friend.
You’re putting the cart before the horse, but yes, if the crooked Dems hadn’t orchestrated the Maidan Revolution in ‘14.
Coups have consequences. 
“My neighbor came over my property last week and took over 20% of my lot.
He wants to negotiate and swap land with me. He gets to keep the 20% he already occupies of my land, in exchange for not taking more of my land.”
Land has been taken by force for all of human history. It’s only held by force as well. If you don’t have the means to keep your neighbor from taking your land then you never really owned it to begin with.
The Russian federation in 1994 and 2004 accepted the boundary with Ukraine and agreed to respect them.
The Ukrainians fear that if Putin gets land now, he will come back again 8n a few years for more.
They thought he would be satisfied with the land he grabbed in 2014, but then he came back for more
Excellent, let’s give our country back to Great Britain.
The difference is that we stopped that in 1945.
If you open the door to grabbing land by force, you open up a can of worms, returning us yo internecine warfare
If you open the door to grabbing land by force, you open up a can of worms, returning us yo internecine warfare
When did grabbing land "stop"?
since 1945.. USSR annexed territories like East Prussia and the Kuril Islands after World War II. The Soviets also absorbed the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) and parts of Poland and Finland into the USSR.
People's Republic of China: Annexed Tibet in 1951
India: Annexed Goa from Portugal in 1961.
Indonesia: Invaded and annexed East Timor in 1975, East Timor later regained its independence.
Israel: Annexed the Golan Heights from Syria in 1981, after occupying it since 1967. Israel also extended its law and jurisdiction to East Jerusalem and some surrounding areas in 1967.
The next thing you're going to say is that "this is the war to end all wars"...hahahhahahahha....
Ukraine will get what the United States and Russia decides it gets....simple as that. Not Europe, not China, not Iran or any mid-east country... will get a "vote" on the outcome. Because of this simple fact that was delineated since the 5th century BC.. "The strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must".
East Prussia and the kursk islands were grabbed in 1945
The rest were exceptions.
Btw, those examples given—USSR’s post-WWII annexations, China’s takeover of Tibet, India’s annexation of Goa, Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor, and Israel’s actions in the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem—are widely criticized as violations of international law. For instance, the Baltic States’ annexation by the USSR was never recognized by many Western nations, and East Timor’s occupation led to decades of resistance until independence in 2002.
My point about opening a “can of worms” is supported by the ripple effects of unchecked aggression. If Russia’s actions in Ukraine are legitimized, it could embolden other powers—China with Taiwan, or any state with irredentist claims—to act similarly, unraveling the fragile norms that deter large-scale wars. The quote from Thucydides (“The strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must”) reflects a cynical view of power politics, but modern international law rejects this as a basis for global order. The UN, NATO, and other institutions, flawed as they are, exist to counter this might-makes-right mentality. Ukraine’s resistance, backed by significant Western support, shows that the outcome isn’t solely dictated by Russia and the U.S., but by a broader coalition upholding sovereignty and self-determination.
Btw, those examples given—USSR’s post-WWII annexations, China’s takeover of Tibet, India’s annexation of Goa, Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor, and Israel’s actions in the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem—are widely criticized as violations of international law. For instance, the Baltic States’ annexation by the USSR was never recognized by many Western nations, and East Timor’s occupation led to decades of resistance until independence in 2002.
Nobody ever mention Turkey’s invasion and occupation of Northern Cyprus, where they’ve now been for over fifty years.
Greeks mention it all the time. And northern Cyprus is not recognised by any country except Turkey
There isn’t going to be a land swap. KGB Putin is playing the classical Kremlin Bolshevik “negotiating” hand: What’s mine is mine and what is yours is negotiable. Only the historically ignornant and willful blind don’t see it. It’s deeply unserious and unworthy of engagement.
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