Trump-Putin meeting: How much territory does Russia control in Ukraine?

Russian President Vladimir Putin and United States President Donald Trump volition conscionable connected Friday successful Alaska to sermon ending Moscow’s three-year-long warfare successful Ukraine.

The leaders are expected to sermon “land swapping”, suggesting that Trump whitethorn enactment an statement wherever Russia volition support power of immoderate of the Ukrainian territory it presently occupies, but not all.

In a quality league astatine the White House connected Tuesday, Trump said, “Russia’s occupied a large information of Ukraine. They occupied premier territory. We’re going to effort to get immoderate of that territory backmost for Ukraine.”

But the thought of a swap besides suggests that Ukraine mightiness request to springiness up immoderate onshore that it presently controls.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly said that immoderate woody involving the ceding of Ukrainian onshore to Russia would beryllium unsuccessful.

What does Putin want?

Last month, Trump warned that tougher sanctions would beryllium enactment successful spot unless Russia halted warring with Ukraine wrong 50 days. That deadline has present passed, and nary caller measures person deed Moscow, but the US has imposed 50 percent tariffs connected India to punish it for its continued acquisition of Russian oil.

Trump has demanded that Putin hold to a ceasefire connected Friday to debar the US imposing further tariffs connected different countries buying Russian vigor assets.

Putin has stated that helium wants afloat power of Ukraine’s eastbound regions, including Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, parts of which Russia annexed successful 2022, on with Crimea, which it annexed successful 2014.

If Kyiv were to agree, it would mean withdrawing troops from parts of Luhansk and Donetsk, wherever overmuch of the caller warring has been concentrated.

Bloomberg reported connected August 8 that US and Russian officials were moving towards an statement that would “freeze the war”, and let Moscow to support the territory it has taken.

In addition, Putin has consistently demanded that Ukraine stay a neutral state, abandoning its ambitions to articulation NATO.

Can Ukraine adjacent cede territory?

Ukraine giving up onshore it has mislaid during this warfare and previously, successful 2014, is not a invited option.

On Saturday, Zelenskyy said that helium would not “gift” onshore to Russia, and that Ukrainians would not springiness up their onshore to Russian occupiers.

More than this, ceding immoderate territory would beryllium amerciable nether the Ukrainian constitution.

How overmuch of Ukraine does Russia control?

Russia occupies astir one-fifth – 114,500 quadrate km (44,600 quadrate miles) – of Ukraine’s land.

The progressive beforehand enactment stretches immoderate 1,000km (620 miles) done the regions of Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson.

Russia controls astir three-quarters of the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions.

Additionally, tiny parts of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions of Ukraine are nether Russian occupation. Across the Sumy and Kharkiv regions, Russia controls astir 400 sq km (154 sq miles) of territory. In Dnipropetrovsk, Russia has taken a tiny country adjacent the border.

Russia controls astir 46,570 sq km (17,981 sq miles), oregon 88 percent, of the territory known arsenic Donbas, made up of the Luhansk and Donbas regions. Russia occupies astir each of Luhansk and three-quarters of Donetsk.

Ukraine inactive holds astir 6,600 sq km (2,550 sq miles) of Donbas, though Russia has been focusing astir of its vigor on the beforehand successful Donetsk, pushing towards the past remaining large cities not successful its control.

This has been portion of its efforts to unafraid what is known arsenic the “fortress belt”.

What is the fortress belt?

The “fortress belt” stretches immoderate 50km (31 miles) on a strategical road betwixt the towns of Kostiantynivka and Sloviansk.

The fortress loop includes cardinal towns — Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka, Oleksiyevo-Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka – which person remained nether the power of Ukrainian troops since 2014 and are of important strategical value arsenic logistical and administrative centre.

Attempts by Russian troops to seizure Sloviansk and the cities of the fortress loop successful 2022-2023 were unsuccessful, and Ukrainian counteroffensives drove the Russian forces acold from cardinal positions.

“Ukraine’s fortress loop has served arsenic a large obstacle to the Kremlin’s territorial ambitions successful Ukraine implicit the past 11 years,” the Washington, DC-based deliberation vessel Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported connected August 8.

Russian advances: What’s the concern connected the crushed now?

In August, Russian forces made important gains, advancing astir 10km (6 miles) beyond the beforehand lines arsenic they intensified efforts to prehend the fortress loop from the southwest, concentrating forces successful the Toretsk and eastbound Pokrovsk directions.

Al Jazeera subject adept Alex Gatapoulous said, “I’m not definite what Ukraine has to connection successful presumption of territory. Russia has it each and is dilatory winning this conflict, albeit astatine a large cost.

“There is already question astir Pokrovsk successful the east, and Konstantinivka is besides successful information of encirclement. If Ukraine hasn’t built antiaircraft positions in-depth, Russian forces volition person the quality to interruption retired into unfastened country. This is simply a truly unsafe clip for Ukraine. They’ve mislaid each the Russian territory they had taken successful Kursk and person small to commercialized with.”

How has the warfare progressed implicit the past 3 years?

In the war’s aboriginal weeks, Russia precocious from the north, eastbound and south, rapidly seizing immense areas of Ukrainian territory, with fierce battles successful Irpin, Bucha and Mariupol – the second of which fell to Russian forces successful May 2022. The siege of Mariupol was 1 of the deadliest and astir destructive battles of the war. Ukrainian officials estimated tens of thousands of civilian deaths.

By March 2022, Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest successful Europe, and by April of that year, Russia controlled 27 percent of Ukraine.

By precocious 2022, Ukraine had turned the tide with large counteroffensives successful Kharkiv and Kherson, with Kyiv reclaiming 54 percent of the onshore Russia had captured since the opening of the war, according to ISW data, reducing Russian-occupied onshore to conscionable 18 percent of the country.

In August 2024, Ukraine launched a important incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, marking a notable escalation successful the conflict. This violative saw Ukrainian forces advancing astir 10km (6 miles) into Russian territory, seizing power implicit an estimated 250 sq km (96.5 sq miles), each of which has since been retaken by Russia.

By precocious 2024 and into 2025, the warfare had settled into a grinding impasse, with some sides suffering dense losses. However, Russia’s caller incursions, pushing towards Sloviansk, allude to the imaginable for different violative to instrumentality onshore it has historically struggled to capture.

What was the pre-war situation?

Prior to Russia’s full-scale 2022 penetration of Ukraine, Russia had held Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine successful 2014.

Moscow besides supported separatists successful the Donbas region, starring to the instauration of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. Russia officially recognised these entities connected February 21, 2022, and launched a full-scale penetration of Ukraine 3 days later.

The warfare successful Ukraine has resulted successful 1 of the largest and fastest-growing displacement crises successful Europe since World War II. According to the UN, astir 10 cardinal Ukrainians person been displaced, which is astir 21 percent of the country’s pre-war population.

Of these, 3.7 cardinal stay internally displaced wrong Ukraine, portion 6.9 cardinal person fled overseas arsenic refugees.