Volodymyr Zelensky is in Washington today to debrief with Donald Trump following the US President’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. The purpose of today’s meeting at the White House will be to discuss the parameters of a potential peace deal in Ukraine. The last time Zelensky came to Washington was in February, when Trump and his vice president J.D. Vance berated the war-time leader for not being sufficiently ‘grateful’ for America’s support in the conflict with Russia. Once again, there is every possibility today’s summit will turn out as tense as it did six months ago. 

Zelensky and his allies have a tall task ahead of them today

Trump reportedly wants to discuss the territorial concessions demanded by Putin during Friday’s tete-a-tete. The Russian president is said to have pushed to be given full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions during the closed-doors meeting between the two. While Luhansk is almost entirely under Russian occupation, Ukraine still holds about 30 per cent of the Donetsk region. Zelensky’s position on land swaps has thawed somewhat over the past month – over the weekend, he said the front line’s ‘contact line is the........

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