August 21st, 2025 - Trump’s Bold Talk Not Enough as Russia and Ukraine Remain Miles Apart on Peace

To hear the Trump administration tell it, the diplomatic flurry of recent days produced breakthrough after breakthrough.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was supposedly ready for an imminent meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. The Kremlin had purportedly accepted Western security guarantees for Ukraine, as strong as NATO protection. Ukraine was said to be willing to give up huge swaths of territory, at least for now, to end the war.

But nearly a week after what Mr. Trump hailed as a groundbreaking U.S.-Russia summit in Alaska, none of these things have panned out. The problem of ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine looks no less intractable. Neither a cease-fire nor a peace settlement seems any closer, and Russia continues to pound Ukraine and its citizens with fierce missile and drone barrages.

Both sides may be considering concessions behind closed doors that they are not yet ready to acknowledge in public. European leaders believe they have Mr. Trump’s ear after their unusual group visit to the White House on Monday and his commitment to some sort of post-settlement security assurances for Ukraine. Mr. Zelensky, having survived another White House meeting without humiliation, sounded cautiously optimistic about the talks' direction in comments to reporters.

Still, the gulf between Moscow and Kyiv’s positions remains huge. That reality is crashing into the expectations set by the White House for an imminent peace. Here’s a breakdown of the key issues separating Russia and Ukraine.

Before meeting with Mr. Putin in Alaska, Mr. Trump suggested that a peace deal would involve “some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.” It quickly became clear that Mr. Putin, believing he was winning, wanted a swap tilted sharply in his favor, demanding Ukraine give up the Donbas region while Russia might return 660 square miles. However, the deal would come with the caveat of Ukraine recognizing Russian sovereignty over Donbas and Crimea, something Ukraine, led by Zelensky, flatly refuses.

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster) - Validate (verb, VAL-uh-dayt) - To validate something is to show that it is real or correct. Validate can also mean “to state or show that something is legal or official,” “to put a mark on something to show that it has been checked and is official or accepted,” and “to show that someone’s feelings, opinions, etc., are fair and reasonable.”

Example: The company’s claims about its latest product are yet to be validated.