United States President Donald Trump has confirmed he will meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on August 15 in Alaska to discuss efforts to end the war in Ukraine.But, Trump added, any peace deal would involve “some swapping” of territory, a controversial prospect.“We are going to have a meeting with Russia. We’ll start off with Russia,” he said on Friday, as he hosted leaders from Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House.Trump offered few details on what, if anything, had changed in his months-long effort to bring about a deal to end Russia’s invasion.Still, he suggested any breakthrough would require the exchange of territory.“It’s very complicated. But we’re going to get some back, and we’re going to get some switched. There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both, but we’ll be talking about that either later or tomorrow,” he said.Ukraine and its European allies have long opposed any agreement that involves ceding occupied territory – including Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia – to Russia.But Putin has repeatedly said that any deal must require Ukraine to relinquish some of the territories Russia has seized since 2014.He has also called for a pause to …
