The map set on the easel displayed Ukraine with its 1,300-kilometer frontline and the fifth of its territory under occupation. It was around this document that Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump began their bilateral meeting at the White House on Monday, August 18. Nothing has emerged so far about what the two leaders discussed behind closed doors.

However, the previous statements by the American president regarding potential territorial concessions are well known. According to multiple sources cited in US media, Trump came out of his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, August 15, saying the Russian president would agree to ending the war on the condition that he obtain the entire eastern region of Donbas, comprised of the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, including zones of each still controlled by Kyiv.

Trump has made no secret of his view that such a withdrawal would be an unavoidable concession to secure a peace deal. "President Zelensky of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight," he wrote on his Truth Social network on Sunday night.

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