RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Insiders describe Trump’s Ukraine plan to Washington Post

Ukraine will have to relinquish its claims to Russian territory as part of a peace deal envisioned by former US President Donald Trump, The Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing anonymous insiders.

The Republican nominee for the November election has boasted on numerous occasions that he would be able to end the Ukraine conflict in 24 hours, should he win the presidency. However, Trump has declined to provide details on his plan.

The terms that Trump wants to push through involve Kiev recognising Crimea and Donbass as parts of Russia, the newspaper said, citing people who have discussed the issue with the former president or his advisers. However, his campaign downplayed those accounts as mere “speculation” by “uninformed sources who have no idea what is going on or what will happen”.

Crimea has been a part of Russia since 2014, when residents rejected a US-backed armed coup in Kiev and voted in a referendum to seek Russian protection from the new government.

The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics also defied the post-coup authorities and took up arms, when Kiev sent in the army to quash them. Ukraine’s refusal to implement a roadmap for reconciliation with Donbass, the so-called Minsk Agreements, and preparation for renewed hostilities, were cited by Moscow as the key triggers of the current conflict.

Western officials have pledged military support for Kiev for “as long as it takes” to resist Russia. However a string of battlefield setbacks for Ukrainian forces and the Western failure to provide sufficient aid have put a dent in the strategy.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg last week urged foreign donors to ramp up support, with the aim of giving Kiev a stronger position during hypothetical peace talks.

“The way to convince Russia that they have to sit down and accept a solution where Ukraine prevails as a sovereign independent democratic nation in Europe is to give military support to Ukraine,”he told the BBC on Sunday. “Of course, at the end of the day it has to be Ukraine that decides what kind of compromises they are willing to [make].”

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has declared full the capture of lost territories, including Crimea, as the only outcome of the conflict that his government will accept. Moscow has said it is willing to negotiate, if Kiev acknowledges the “reality on the ground”.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Five killed in attacks in different Ukrainian regions

Russian attacks dispersed through different regions of Ukraine killed five people on Monday, officials said.

A missile strike killed three people and injured at least eight in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said.

An industrial building, seven apartment blocks, as well as medical and educational facilities were damaged, authorities said. They did not disclose the nature of the industrial site.

Authorities reported four guided bombs had hit the town of Bilopillia in northern Sumy region, killing a woman and injuring three other people.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, said the attack targeted the centre of the town of 15,000 and rescue efforts went on into the evening. Shops and a city council building were damaged, the regional administration said.

The governor of central Poltava region said a Russian attack killed one person, injured 10 and damaged several dwellings. The governor did not say in which locality the attack took place.

In Zaporizhzhia, on the Ukrainian government-held side of the front line in the south, images released by prosecutors showed a passenger car buried under rubble and concrete and iron pillars that had collapsed.

Last Friday, another industrial site in the city was also targeted by a Russian missile strike, which damaged residential buildings and killed four people.

Russian troops control the nearby Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, further along the Dnipro River to the southwest of the city, and have accusedUkraine of attacking the plant with drone strikes since last week.

Kyiv said it has nothing to do with incidents at the power station reported by Russia, describing them as "armed provocations".

RT/Reuters