The key facts
- Trump said in a CBS News interview that Ukraine after a peace agreement would be “of a somewhat different shape”
- Political scientist Sergey Markelov linked the statement to the need for territorial concessions
- Markelov mentioned the Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the context of possible agreements
Trump's statement and its interpretation
US President Donald Trump said in an interview with CBS News that after a peace agreement is concluded, Ukraine will be “of a somewhat different shape”, and expressed confidence that the conflict will end soon. Political scientist Sergey Markelov, in a conversation with Vechernyaya Moskva , interpreted these words as signaling the need for territorial concessions: in his view, Trump publicly voiced Russian demands that will have to be reckoned with in a peace settlement. “In essence, he is making it clear that for peace to be concluded, Russia needs territorial concessions from Ukraine,” Life.ru quoted the expert as saying.
What this is about
Markelov expects borders to change and links possible agreements to the territories of the Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, emphasizing that Russia intends to defend its vision of the territorial question. Note that this is one expert's assessment, not the official position of the parties: the actual negotiating parameters are not disclosed in the cited publications, and Trump's statement remains a general formulation without specifics on borders.
