The Telepgraph:The United States is poised to recognise Russia’s control over Crimea and other occupied Ukrainian territories to secure a deal to end the war.
The Telegraph understands that Donald Trump has sent his peace envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to make the direct offer to Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
The plan to recognise territory, which breaks US diplomatic convention, is likely to go ahead despite concerns among Ukraine’s European allies.
One well-placed source said: “It’s increasingly clear the Americans don’t care about the European position. They say the Europeans can do whatever they want.”
CNN: Russia is occupying some 20% of the territory recognized under international law as part of sovereign Ukraine, including almost all of the Luhansk region, and parts of the Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Moscow is demanding Ukraine surrender the entirety of these four regions, which it has annexed but not fully conquered.
Russia has made some gains along the eastern Ukrainian frontline in recent weeks, most significantly around the city of Pokrovsk.
Aljazeera:The US last week revealed a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine that was widely viewed as too favourable to Russia, including calling for Kyiv to make major territorial concessions and abandon its NATO ambitions.
The plan has since been altered with Ukrainian input, nixing a 600,000-member cap on Ukraine’s army and a general war crimes amnesty, said Ukraine’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya.
Washington Post: Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call this past week with President Donald Trump demanded that Kyiv surrender full control of Donetsk, a strategically vital region in eastern Ukraine, as a condition for ending the war, said two senior officials familiar with the conversation.
Putin has tried and failed to conquer the territory for 11 years, repeatedly repulsed by Ukrainian forces who are deeply entrenched in an area they believe is a major bulwark against a speedy Russian advance westward toward their capital.
