“Territorial Exchange”. Donald Trump has his meeting this Friday, August 15 with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska to convince him to end the war in Ukraine.
In a message posted on its Truth social platform this Friday, August 8, the US president said that the way he would like to lead his mediation. “We are going to restore the territories and we will change it. There will be exchanges of territories for the benefit of each one,” he wrote.
The Kremlin confirmed the meeting in Alaska, but did not communicate with its intentions during this meeting. Since the beginning of the conflict, Moscow has affirmed that Ukraine has delivered four partially occupied regions (those of Donetsk, Lougansk, Zaporijia and Kherson), in addition to the Crimea attached in 2014, and that renounces the deliveries of Western weapons and any membership in NATO.
A lease contract from 49 to 99 years
According to leaks in the press, in particular on the Polish information site, US diplomacy would propose a plan that includes de facto recognition of the territories occupied by the Russian army through a lease of 49 or 99 years.
“This mechanism would make possible, in the minds of certain jurists, preserve the thesis of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, since it would be a form of lease: the property would legally remain to Ukraine,” he said about the BFMTV set Claude Blanchemaison, former French Moscow embassy.
A practice on rupture with international law
For Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Abaretier, military historian and doctor of Political Science, the US proposal refers to dark times.
“We must not forget that the exchanged territories are not simple areas of land. Even in the desert, there are populations. These are also people who are exchanging. This recalls, for a military historian, World War II, when Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt made drawings on a map: 50 % here, 35 % there …” he recalled.
A summit without Ukraine
Russia’s requirements are unacceptable for kyiv, who wants the withdrawal of Russian troops and Western security guarantees, including the search for weapons deliveries and the deployment of a European contingent, which opposes Russia.
Volodymyr Zelensky was not invited to this summit in Alaska. However, the Ukrainian head of state ensures that a meeting between him and Vladimir Putin is a “priority” and that “it is legitimate that Ukraine participates in negotiations” regarding the future of his country.
This Saturday, August 9, he reaffirmed that the Ukrainians “will not give up their land to the occupants.”
Source: BFM TV
