US and Russia Negotiating Deal to Surrender Ukrainian Territory

(The News American)—Now that former Cold War rivals Russia and the United States have stopped lobbing threats at each other, they’re back to wrangling over a deal to end the war in Ukraine. A recent report suggests the working deal would cede Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory to Moscow.

The word is that U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, may meet as early as next week. Ideas for an in-person venue are being kicked around. Some reports say Trump has suggested Italy, while Putin has proposed the United Arab Emirates. Since the International Criminal Court (ICC) has an arrest warrant out for Putin, the Italian government would supposedly be compelled to arrest him, which would make for an interesting scenario. The world would learn if anyone takes the ICC seriously.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has offered to host the two leaders as well, according to Russian state-controlled media. Belarus is considered one of Russia’s closest allies and perceived in the West as an unofficial vassal state. During the Soviet era, the country was officially a Soviet republic.

An “Acceptable Offer”

All this news follows a visit between a trusted Trump aide and Putin. Russian media organ RT reported Thursday that the U.S. has made an “acceptable offer.” This was based on a statement from Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov following a visit by U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow. Ushakov gave no further details on the terms of this potentially acceptable offer. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “We still have a ways to go, but we’re certainly closer [to peace] today than we were yesterday — when we weren’t close at all.”

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