This dog HAS said Over and OVER that the MAJOR Goal for Ukraine President Zelenskyy HAS TO BE European TROOP’S deployed INTO the Ukraine….No NATO ‘Officially‘… but the same nevertheless….
Putin is also happy to be the company of an American President…..
China as a neutral party in country makes absolutely NO DAMN sense…..
Trump wants NOTHING to do with Ukraine, but will be forced to NOT walk away by the US Congress , other Republicans ,and Europe which does HAVE the Ukraine’s back…
Zelensky KNOWS he’s gonna let Russia keep sections on Donetsk and Luhansk, area’s that actually do identified WITH Russia mostly than with Ukraine….(Ukraine WASa memeber of the old Soviet Union …Putin won’t let THAT Go)…Zlensky comes to Washington Monday ….
Lets remember?
Putin IS also working to get his Economy Back up….
He’s consolidating his control over the country….
NATO WILL be busy with its new members from the old Soviet Union where Putin WILL be looking to mess with….
Oh?
Trump ‘forgot’ about his DEMAND for a Immediate Cease Fire….
Guardian Update….
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia refusing to accept a ceasefire was complicating efforts to end Moscow’s more than three-year-long conflict,after a summit between the US and Russian presidents yielded no deal on ending the war: “We see that Russia rebuffs numerous calls for a ceasefire and has not yet determined when it will stop the killing. This complicates the situation,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post late Saturday. “If they lack the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater – peaceful coexistence with its neighbors for decades.” Trump has said that he had agreed with Putin that a peace deal should be sought without the prior ceasefire that Ukraine and its European allies, until now with US support, have demanded. Ukrainian and European leaders fear that a straight-to-peace deal, skipping over a preliminary ceasefire, gives Moscow an upper hand in talks.
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After his meeting with Vladimir Putin on Friday, Donald Trump told European leaders that he supported a plan to end the Ukraine-Russia war by ceding unconquered land to Russia, the New York Times reported, citing two senior European officials. The officials said Trump will discuss the plan with Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday when the Ukrainian president visits the White House, adding that European leaders have been invited to join. Trump earlier said that Kyiv should make a deal with Moscow because “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not.”
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European officials will decide this weekend whether Zelenskyy will be accompanied on the visit to Washington, German foreign minister Johann Wadephul said on Saturday. European leaders, including Macron, Merz and Starmer, are set to discuss the issues with Zelenskyy on Sunday via video call ahead of his meeting with Trump, the French president’s office said in a statement. A joint statement issued by European leaders said they were “ready to work with US President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy towards a trilateral summit with European support” but “it will be up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory. International borders must not be changed by force.”
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The leaders of eight Nordic-Baltic nations said on Saturday that they remain steadfast in their support for Ukraine and to the efforts by Trump to end the Russian aggression against Ukraine. The leaders of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden said in a statement that achieving peace between Ukraine and Russia requires a ceasefire and security guarantees for Ukraine: “We welcome President Trump’s statement that the US is prepared to participate in security guarantees. No limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with other countries,” the statement said.
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At the Alaska summit, Putin demanded Ukraine withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk as a condition for ending the war, but offered Trump a freeze along the remaining frontline, two sources with direct knowledge of the talks told the Guardian. Although Luhansk is almost entirely under Russian control, Ukraine still holds key parts of Donetsk, including the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk and heavily fortified positions whose defence has cost tens of thousands of lives.
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Eight pages of US government planning documents for the summit meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin were left in a hotel printer in Anchorage before the meeting on Friday, NPR reported. The documents, which were posted online by NPR, appear to have been produced by Trump administration officials in charge of summit planning and included the precise locations and times for the scheduled meetings, as well the phone numbers of US government employees.
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Canadian prime minister Mark Carney welcomed what he said was US openness to providing security guarantees to Ukraine under a peace deal to end Russia’s war against Kyiv. “Robust and credible security guarantees are essential to any just and lasting peace. I welcome the openness of the United States to providing security guarantees as part of Coalition of the Willing’s efforts,” Carney said in a statement.
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Donald Trump hand-delivered a personal letter from first lady Melania Trump to Russian leader Vladimir Putin raising the plight of Ukrainian and Russian children caught in the middle of the ongoing war between the two European countries, it was reported on Saturday. The contents of the letter were unknown – but two Trump administration officials told Reuters that it mentioned the abductions of children resulting from the war that broke out after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. However, the text of the letter, which was obtained and posted online by Fox News on Saturday, is extremely opaque and makes no reference at all to the abductions or transfer of children from Russian-occupied Ukraine to Russia.
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Vladimir Putin has said that his visit to Alaska was “useful and timely”, the Russian news agency Tass reported on Saturday. Putin also added that his conversation with Trump was “sincere and substantive”, adding that Russia respects the position of the US and also wants to settle the Ukrainian conflict peacefully.
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Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov held calls on Saturday with his Turkish and Hungarian counterparts, the Russian foreign ministry said. The phone call between Lavrov and Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan took place at Turkey’s initiative, the Russian foreign ministry said, and exchanged views on the Russia-US meeting, without elaborating further.
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The Ukrainian military said it had pushed Russian forces back by about 2km (1.2 miles) on part of the Sumy front in northern Ukraine. There was no immediate comment from Russia, which controls a little over 200 sq km in the region, according to Ukraine’s battlefield mapping project DeepState….
ISW Update...Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 16, 2025
- Various US officials indicated that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be willing to compromise on some war termination demands, but Putin’s own statements and Russian official statements contradict these claims.
- It is unclear what Putin offered in his meeting with Trump beyond reiterating his demand for Donetsk Oblast and offering a limited ceasefire with no known timeframe in Zaporizhia and Kherson oblasts.
- Putin’s demand for all of Donetsk Oblast is the most clear and consistent demand coming out of the Alaska Summit.
- Ukrainian forces would not be able to conduct a safe and orderly withdrawal from unoccupied Donetsk Oblast in accordance with Putin’s demand without a full ceasefire across the entire theater, however
- ISW continues to assess that a potential Ukrainian withdrawal from Donetsk Oblast would degrade Ukraine’s defensive capabilities and defense industrial base (DIB) and put hundreds of thousands more Ukrainian civilians under Russian occupation. Ukraine would require robust international security guarantees and the immediate deployment of an international peacekeeping contingent to deter future Russian aggression.
- Seizing the remainder of Donetsk Oblast would likely be a difficult and years-long effort for Russian forces rather than a quick effort as Putin likely aims to portray, as Russian forces remain unable to secure operationally significant advances or advance faster than foot pace.
- Putin’s reported rejection of a full ceasefire in Ukraine and the ongoing Russian offensives in Kharkiv and Sumy oblasts indicate that Putin intends to continue his war in Ukraine while negotiations are ongoing — a point that Russian Security Council Deputy Chairperson Dmitry Medvedev welcomed.
- The Kremlin reportedly instructed Russian media outlets to present the Alaska summit as a meeting between two superpowers and to prepare Russian society for the possibility of a protracted war in Ukraine.
- Russian officials continue rhetorical campaigns designed to undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and peace negotiations and to legitimize Russia’s war in Ukraine.
- Ukrainian forces likely cleared several settlements within the Russian penetration northeast of Dobropillya.
- Ukrainian forces advanced near Pokrovsk and Velykomykhailivka. Russian forces advanced near Siversk.
The peace terms that Russian President Vladimir Putin laid out in his summit with President Trump included that Ukraine withdraw entirely from two of its eastern regions, two sources briefed on the call told Axios.
Why it matters: Trump will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday in Washington. He also told European leaders in a post-summit callthat he wants to arrange a trilateral summit with Putin and Zelensky as soon as next Friday, the sources said. But based on Putin’s conditions, a major breakthrough appears unlikely.
- Trump also invited the European leaders on the call to join Monday’s White House meeting, the sources said.
Breaking it down: Trump and his special envoy Steve Witkoff briefed Zelensky and the leaders of the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Finland, NATO and the European Commission on Putin’s positions last night on their flight back to Washington.
- They said Putin had demanded that Ukraine cede two of the four regions to which Russia has laid claim (Donetsk and Luhansk), and freeze the front lines in the other two (Kherson and Zaporizhzhia). Russia controls nearly all of Luhansk, but only about three-quarters of Donetsk.
- Putin presented his willingness to stop pushing forward in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia as a concession, in exchange for Ukraine withdrawing from Donetsk, one source briefed on the call said. In reality, Russia hasn’t made any progress in those areas for some time.
- A Ukrainian source said the U.S. side had the impression Putin was willing to negotiate over the small slivers of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions under Russian control.
Between the lines: This proposal calls for significantly more territory to shift from Ukrainian to Russian control than vice versa — something Moscow might argue is reasonable, as Russia has the upper hand militarily, but which Ukraine would almost certainly reject.
- Putin also requested that the U.S. recognize Russia’s sovereignty in the parts of Ukraine it would gain under a peace deal, according to the source.
- Trump called the meeting a success and said he and Putin agreed on most issues, though Putin appears to have stuck to most of his maximalist demands.
The intrigue: Putin did say he was willing to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, the source said. But he mentioned China as one of the possible guarantors, possibly suggesting he would oppose a security force consisting of NATO troops.
- Ukraine and its European backers have been discussing the idea of a “coalition of the willing” standing behind Ukraine to prevent a future Russian invasion.
- Ukraine was encouraged by the fact that Trump endorsed the idea of security guarantees for Ukraine in the post-summit call, according to a Ukrainian official, who said the matter was not discussed in detail.
- Trump has said this wouldn’t be a NATO mission, but Ukraine hopes the U.S. will participate in some fashion. The official said the matter would be discussed further during Zelensky’s White House visit.
What to watch: Trump told Zelensky and the other participants in the call that he wants to hold a trilateral summit “fast,” as early as August 22, two sources told Axios. Putin has not publicly committed to such a meeting….
Daily Kos grunt Report for Today….
The report describes how Ukraine, short of troop’s uses drone to compensate…
Th recent Russia Op is being picked apart….
Note…
The Guardian and ISW entries will be here later today…