1. President Trump told Ukraine to give up hopes of getting back annexed Crimea or joining NATO as he prepared to host President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European leaders in Washington on Monday to press Kyiv into accepting a peace deal with Russia. After rolling out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, Trump is leaning on Ukraine to accept a deal to end Europe's deadliest war in 80 years, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions. Trump will meet first Zelenskiy and then the leaders of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Finland, the European Union and NATO, the White House said. The European leaders are flying to Washington to show solidarity with Ukraine and to press for strong security guarantees in any post-war settlement. Trump's team stressed on Sunday that there had to be compromises on both sides. But Trump put the burden on Zelenskiy to end the war that Russia began with its full-scale invasion in February 2022. (Source: reuters.com)
2. The proposal to end the war in Ukraine that emerged from the summit in Alaska between President Trump and President Putin of Russia centers on persuading Kyiv to give up the Donbas, the industrial region in the east. The traditionally Russian-speaking area has been at the heart of what Mr. Putin calls the “root causes” of the war, and taking it over is near the top of his list of territorial and political demands. Mr. Putin has tried to control the Donbas since 2014, first through separatist proxies and then by invading and annexing the region in 2022. The Kremlin’s forces and its separatist allies have conquered about 87 percent of the Donbas since 2014, according to data from DeepState, a Ukrainian group that tracks battlefield developments. (Source: nytimes.com)
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