Donald Trump has confirmed he will meet Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, August 15 to try and thrash out a Ukrainian peace deal. The US President announced the summit on social media and it was later confirmed by a a Kremlin spokesperson.

In the run up to the summit announcement, Trump had hinted that Ukraine might have to cede territory to Russia. “You’re looking at territory that’s been fought over for three and a half years, a lot of Russians have died,” he said. “A lot of Ukrainians have died. It’s very complicated. We’re going to get some back, we’re going to get some switched.

“There will be some swapping of territories, to the betterment of both.” The White House provided no further details of what that proposal would look like.

However, Washington sources told CBS News that Trump and his team are trying to persuade European leaders to agree to Russia keeping Crimea and being given the entire Donbas region.

In return, Russia would return to Ukraine the occupied parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. According to the Wall Street Journal, Putin proposed a similar deal to Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff at a recent meeting in Moscow.

Volodymyr Zelensky has previously rejected any suggestion of giving up land and it is not clear whether he would accept such proposals now.

Putin’s army has struggled to make a decisive breakthrough in the almost three-and-a-half year war, and has so far seized control of roughly just 20% of Ukraine’s territory.

Yet many Russian analysts believe that territorial gains are not the most pressing matter for the Kremlin boss.

Rather, they argue Putin is more concerned about keeping Ukraine out of NATO, preventing the military alliance from expanding into former Soviet realms, limiting the size of Kyiv’s army and ensuring that its government is friendly toward Moscow. This would amount to a de facto capitulation that would be unacceptable to Ukraine.

Trump, however, insisted on Friday that the US had “a shot at” a trilateral peace agreement between the countries.

“European leaders want to see peace, President Putin, I believe, wants to see peace, and Zelensky wants to see peace,” he said.

“President Zelensky has to get all of his, everything he needs, because he’s going to have to get ready to sign something and I think he’s working hard to get that done.”