What parts of Ukraine does Russia control as Trump suggests a land swap?

The Washington Post ^ | 6:29 AM EDT August 10, 2025 | Niha Masih, Grace Moon

[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...

[lodi90]

Putin’s fake and Potemkin war economy relies on aid from Iran and North Korea could be bankrupted easily. Yet still the EU funds Putin’s war machine by choice. That’s not how you win a war obviously.

The Russian army “physically left” Kharkiv and Kherson after being beaten by Ukrainians driving pick up truck technicals. You probably don’t know where that is and when it happened, though. But that’s ok. “hahahahaha”

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Excellent points. Very logical. Too bad that that just proves you are a Russia ‘bot. 🤡

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The difference is that we stopped that in 1945.

So it's OK when you do it.

Check.

[ConservativeMind]

You could have killed the guy for tresspassing.

Why did you let him think it was okay to take it without a fight?

[Dick Vomer]

The Russian army “physically left” Kharkiv and Kherson after being beaten by Ukrainians driving pick up truck technicals. You probably don’t know where that is and when it happened, though. But that’s ok. “hahahahaha”

Whelp, ya got me. It's been 4-5 years now so I guess those 5-600,000 civilians in Kharkiv are home now living in peace. I mean they're a whole 30 km from Russia, so that's plenty of room. Well out of range of Ivan's drones/artillery/missiles and bombs. Probably pretty peaceful now.... now that the Ukrainians have it back.

Kherson, hmmmm I don't know. I'm thinking that it looks like Mykoliav is the key. Because Russia really wants Odessa. They'll try crossing further up the river and try to encircle it but it's going to be a slog doing that. Most of the people in Kherson speak Russian so I'm thinking that Putin might not flatten it out but you never know.

I'm thinking that you think Ukraine is going to "win" this thing?

I'm thinking BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street and the bankers are going to win. They got to "rebuild" and "reinvest" to protect Ukrainian democracy and all those natural resources, biolabs and farmlands.

Call me when the Europeans send bodies into that meat grinder.

[adorno]

You could have killed the guy for tresspassing. Why did you let him think it was okay to take it without a fight?

the Russians trespassed, and the Ukrainians have been killing them in huge numbers. The Russians have not learned their lessons yet and continue dying and trying and dying, etc.

Putin continues the insanity approach. Doing the same thing, over and over again, in the hope of getting a different result. 3 1/2 years of insanity.

Russia is not a good neighbor. ;)

[Georgia Girl 2]

The regions that Russia controls comprise a huge swath of coastline. I think the land swaps that Trump is talking about likely entail Ukraine getting back some of their coastline.