Cartography of Ukraine front fronts and ceasefire

Speculations have turned on the question of whether the Trump -Putin summit will lead to the modification of the card of Ukraine by force -and fundamentally -.

Russia has been claiming large parts of Ukraine since 2014, when President Vladimir Putin made his first move.

At the time, in the space of a few months, Moscow carried out the relatively bloody occupation and annexation and the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.

But this was followed by a separatist movement supported by Russia in the eastern region of Donbas – in particular the two regions, or “oblasts”, known as Donetsk and Luhansk.

A war has simmered there for eight years.

Ukraine lost around 14,000 soldiers and civilians during this period.

But in February 2022, Putin launched her large -scale invasion. Russian troops quickly reached the periphery of kyiv and seized huge southern stretches, including large pieces of two other oblasts, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

The war has reflected and flowed since. Russia now controls a little less territory – against around 27% in spring 2022 at around 20% now. To the east, the Russian forces advance, but very slowly and at high cost.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, from Ukraine, said that an unconditional cease-fire is necessary now. European allies also insist on stopping fighting. US President Donald Trump says that’s what he tried to achieve.

But when approaching its Alaska summit with Putin, Trump began to speak, rather territorial exchanges. This sent shock waves through Kyiv and Europe.

It is not at all clear what refers to Trump, or what these exchanges might look like, since all the territories in question legally belong to Ukraine.

In August 2025, the territory of Ukraine resembles as follows:

Russia would love to extend its control a lot to the entirety of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Some reports suggest that Putin demands that Ukraine gave the remaining territory that it controls in the two oblasts.

But that would mean that Kyiv abandons places where tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are dead by trying to protect – from cities like Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, and a fortified line protecting Ukrainian territory in the north and west.

For Kyiv, such a concession would be a bitter pill to swallow. For Moscow, whose losses were even more catastrophic, it would be considered a victory.

Zelensky said on Tuesday that Ukraine “could not” “leave the Donbas because Moscow would use the region as a springboard to attack the rest of the country.

In recent days, the Russian forces seem to push hard and make progress, near the city of Dobropilya. But it is not yet clear if it marks an important strategic decision or simply an effort to show Trump that Moscow has the upper hand.

What about Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, captured in 2022?

Here, he reported, Russia proposes to stop its offensive and freeze the lines.

But would Russia be ready to return all this?

Trump vaguely talked about “ocean property” on Monday – probably a reference to part of this shore, along the Azov Sea or the Black Sea.

But all of this is part of Putin’s strategically vital terrestrial bridge connecting Russia to occupied Crimea.

It is difficult to see the Russian chief agree to give up all of this. Like Donetsk and Luhansk, Putin considers these places to be part of Russia and illegally annexed them three years ago in four referendums widely considered as an imposture.

For Ukraine and Europe, territorial exchanges – at this very early stage of the talks – are a non -beginner.

A discussion on future borders could possibly arrive, but only when the war has stopped and the security of Ukraine has been guaranteed.