US President Donald Trump andRussia's Vladimir Putinmet Friday for a summit in Alaska aimed -on the US side at least- at bringing an end to the grinding war that has followed Russia's full-scale invasion of 2022. Any peace deal around Ukraine would need to involve agreement on territory, with Russia currently occupying almost a fifth of Ukraine's land. On August 8, Trump suggested a ceasefire deal could involve "some swapping of territories," but it is not yet clear what areas he was referring to, and Ukraine has categorically rejected ceding parts of its land. Russia, too, has rejected the idea. Here's what maps tell us about what's at stake. One proposal, elements of which have emerged this month, reportedly presented to US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow, would have Ukraine give up the remainder of theeasternDonetsk regionand Luhansk, togetherknown as the Donbas, as part of a negotiated settlement. But Ukraine's front lines in Donetsk are creaking. Last week, Russian forces pierced its increasingly porous defenses near the town of Dobropilia. Although Kyiv later said it had "stabilized" the situation, the Russian breakthrough was a reminder that control of the area Witkoff has been discussing with the Kremlin is fluid. It would be politically toxic for Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky to order tens of thousands of civilians and troops to voluntarily leave the Donetsk region. Many could refuse. The practical elements of it would be impossible – evacuating tens of thousands of civilians in days or weeks, to fit the timetable of a peace deal hatched during a Russian summer offensive where Moscow's forces are gaining ground. There are few obvious options for Moscow to concede in return. They hold slivers of border land to the north – near Sumy and Kharkiv – both of which are called "buffer zones" by the Kremlin head, and are the result of less-than-successful incursions designed to drain Ukraine's manpower. But they are tiny and, as Ukrainian officials point out, also part of Ukraine, not Russia. So they are not an obvious or equal "swap." Some of the confusion around Witkoff's Kremlin meeting was whether Putin had stepped back from his maximalist war goals, and had conceded a potential ceasefire purely in exchange for Donetsk. Putin has always wanted way more, and indeed Russia's constitution has perpetuated the false narrative that Ukraine is historically Russia, by adding all four partially occupied regions of Ukraine to its territory. Moscow holds most of Donetsk and nearly all of Luhansk. But it only controls about two-thirds of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia respectively, the former liberated in part from Russian forces in late 2022. Would Putin agree to leave the Ukrainian-held parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia under Kyiv's control? That remains unclear. But Ukraine ceding this territory would be another non-starter, requiring vast tracts of land to be handed over to Moscow and indeed the entire bustling city of Zaporizhzhia to evacuate or become Russian. Zelensky has also warned that territory conceded to Russia would simply be used as a springboard for further invasions, as happened with Crimea, illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014, and used as a launchpad for the full-scale war in 2022. Recent statements of Ukraine's European allies have suggested the current line of contact be the starting point for negotiations. That is not quite a concession, but an important change in tone. For years, Europe and Kyiv – along with the Biden administration – have declared they will never recognise or accept Russian control over occupied parts of Ukraine. But since the return of Trump to the White House, they have softened their position, quietly entertaining the idea that the front lines might be frozen. In truth, that would be a good outcome for Kyiv now. While recent Russian advances near Dobropilia appear to have been contained, across the front lines as a whole they are turning months of incremental progress into more strategic gains. Putin is clearly playing for time, both over the past months of slow-rolled diplomacy in Istanbul, and in Alaska. Before Friday's summit, Kyiv was hoping that Trump would, as he had said he might, gauge "in the first two minutes" of meeting with Putin that it was clear there was no deal to be had, and then impose the secondary sanctions against Moscow's big energy customers – India and China – that he promised to implement on August 8. That did not happen. Instead, Trump appeared in Alaska to haveaccepted Russia's preferred order of events: no immediate ceasefire – and therefore no immediate sanctions – and instead a push for a comprehensive peace deal, which could take months or even years to negotiate while Russian forces continue their assault. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reported from Kyiv, with graphics from Rachel Wilson and Lou Robinson in London. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account atCNN.com
