Putin has demanded entire areas of Donbass—including territories the Russian Army has not yet conquered—but has reportedly made concessions in five regions. The Russian leader has also reportedly agreed to groundbreaking security guarantees for Kiev; Macron has expressed Europe's doubts. Trump is said to support the plan: Russia is a great power, Ukraine is not.

The meeting lasted an hour. And it wasn't easy. Nor, after all, could it have been, given that the outcome of the summit they were discussing had been clear: no ceasefire in Ukraine. An outcome that—according to Russian President Vladimir Putin—brings us closer to the necessary decisions.

Various international newspapers are reconstructing in detail the phone call, which took place at dawn on Saturday 16 August, Italian time, between the President of the United States Donald Trump and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (and then extended to other heads of state and government):  from the Financial Times to the New York Times, from the Wall Street Journal to the Reuters agency and the website Axios, with excellent sources in the US administration.

Further details emerged from official statements from American and European sources on Sunday.

Here are the key points of what emerged.

1. On the ceasefire, Trump shifts to Putin's position

Trump called Zelensky from Air Force One, on which he returned from Alaska to Washington after the August 15 summit with Vladimir Putin, which focused on seeking peace for Ukraine. He also invited him to a face-to-face meeting, which will take place Monday at the White House. The summit will also be attended by the leaders of the European Commission, von der Leyen; NATO, Rutte; Italian Prime Minister Meloni; French President Macron; British Prime Minister Starmer; Finnish Prime Minister Stubb; and German Chancellor Merz.

The new summit promises to be complicated : the starting point, in fact, is not only the lack of an agreement on the ceasefire, but the radical shift in Trump's position on the issue.

If until a few hours before the summit the US leader was saying he wanted a ceasefire, as soon as possible, as early as today, and maintained that he would not be happy if the summit ended without this decision, after the summit Trump shifted to Putin's position.

No truce: we must aim for a comprehensive peace agreement, and it must be done quickly. Not only that: at this point, it must be Ukraine that closes the deal. And it's better that it does so, because—as Trump said in an interview with Fox News—Russia is a great power, and Ukraine is not.

It's unclear why Trump changed his mind so suddenly and decisively: Zelensky - according to the New York Times - intends to ask the US president directly on Monday. According to the White House envoy for Ukraine, Steve Witkoff, the reason is linked to the significant progress made during the meeting. The US leader certainly seems in a hurry to close the deal: the US envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, told Corriere della Sera that we will try to organize a trilateral summit (with Zelensky and Putin) within the next week. According to Axios, the date could be Friday, August 22: seven days after the Anchorage summit.

2. He said he can take over all of Donbass if he wants.

That's not the only sensitive point. According to Axios's reconstruction, Trump reportedly told Zelensky what Putin told him about the situation on the ground: that Russia was making significant advances on the front and that—if it wanted—it could take the entire Donbass region and other areas where fighting is underway.

Zelensky responded to Trump that this was a Putin's lie.

What is clear is that - as written here - the situation on the ground is enormously complicated, but Russia remains - three years after the launch of the invasion - bogged down in a war of attrition in which every minimal advance on the front costs an exorbitant number of human lives.

3. The conditions on the territories and the explicit request on Donetsk and Luhansk

During the call, Witkoff outlined Putin's conditions regarding the land swap.

Here are the details of the plan:

- What territories are being discussed in the exchange?  

According to theFinancial Times, Axios and the Reuters news agency, Putin explicitly asked for the entire Donetsk region and the entire Luhansk region. The request includes territories that the Russian Army has not conquered.

Putin promises to be ready to freeze the war on the front line in the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions and not to occupy other territories in case of agreements on the root causes of the war (see below).

At present, the Financial Times notes, Moscow has occupied about 70 percent of Donetsk and controls about a fifth of Ukraine's territory.

Russia is also demanding formal recognition of Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula it has occupied since 2014.

In exchange, according to Reuters, Moscow is expected to withdraw from some small areas in the Sumy region (in the north) and Kharkiv region (north-east).

According to Witkoff, Russia has made some (unspecified) concessions in relation to all five Ukrainian regions at the centre of its war effort (Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson).

According to the New York Times, Trump told European leaders that he agreed to this request, in the face of Moscow's threat to proceed, alternatively, with the destruction and capture of the entire Donbass.

Zelensky has opposed this and is demanding that negotiations begin where the front line currently lies. The Ukrainian Constitution, Zelensky further explains, prevents him from making territorial concessions without a referendum.

French President Macron called some Russian demands unacceptable: They don't want peace, they want capitulation, he said.

4. NATO-style guarantees and openness to Western troops

Putin has claimed he is ready to provide a written assurance that he will not attack Ukraine again. But what security guarantees can be matched by this promise?

This is a crucial detail, given that Putin – as French President Macron underlined – has repeatedly failed to honour his commitments (for example: until shortly before invading Ukraine, he resolutely denied wanting to do so).

Moscow has repeatedly reiterated its refusal to accept Ukraine's membership in NATO; and even at the end of the summit, Putin stated that he believed it was essential to respond to Russia's demands, the deep roots behind the war. Among these roots, Moscow has always pointed to NATO's eastern enlargement; and Putin has consistently called for the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.

In this context, it is important to note that in the official statement commenting on the summit, Ukrainian leader Zelensky wrote that it is important for Europeans to be involved in all steps to ensure real security guarantees for Ukraine, together with America. We also discussed (with Trump) the positive signals coming from the United States regarding participation in ensuring European security.

What is it about?

Witkoff clarified this on Sunday in an interview with CNN, confirming a Saturday preview by the Wall Street Journal. Putin, he said, has given the green light to guarantees that I would call revolutionary. Essentially, the United States and Europe will be able to offer Ukraine security guarantees similar to NATO's Article 5, even without the direct involvement of the Atlantic Alliance.

Article 5 of the NATO Treaty refers to the principle of collective defense of NATO countries: in the event of an attack on one member, all the others guarantee its military security.

Such an agreement would mean that in the event of a new attack on Ukraine by Russia, the countries offering it security guarantees would be required to intervene militarily to defend Kiev's sovereignty.

The exact details of the proposal—for example, which countries it would affect—are unknown; and it's unclear how the guarantees would be implemented. Trump had certainly been reluctant to commit US forces or resources to Ukraine's defense, but he now appears much more willing to discuss the matter.

Trump - according to the WSJ - said he was ready to offer military support to a European-led reassurance force, without committing to bringing American troops directly to Kiev.

Zelensky said he believes it is necessary to include Ukraine's possible accession to the European Union among security guarantees.

Macron said he wanted to understand, speaking with Trump on Monday, what concrete commitments the US intends to make.

The scheme follows that proposed by several European countries: in the official statement of EU countries - which also reiterates that Moscow has no right to veto Kiev's entry into NATO and the EU - it is mentioned that the coalition of the willing is ready to play an active role.

Giorgia Meloni also wrote in her official statement: The crucial point remains that of security guarantees to prevent new Russian invasions. Only robust and credible guarantees in this regard will be able to prevent new wars and aggression. And in this regard, President Trump today revived the Italian idea of security guarantees inspired by NATO Article 5. The starting point of the proposal is the definition of a collective security clause that would allow Ukraine to benefit from the support of all its partners, including the United States, ready to take action in the event of a new attack.

5. Sanctions and Russian as the official language

Putin also reportedly made other requests of Trump during their meeting.

Russia expects that at least some of the sanctions that have been imposed against Moscow in recent years will be lifted.

Finally, Putin demands that Russian be recognized as one of the official languages of Ukraine, and that Russian Orthodox churches on Ukrainian territory be protected, allowing them to operate freely.

Ukrainian security agencies accuse churches linked to Russia of spreading pro-Moscow propaganda and serving as a base for Kremlin spies. Kiev has already passed a law—currently inactive—banning religious organizations linked to Russia.

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6. What we know about Putin's condition, in summary

• The summit between Trump and Putin on August 15 in Anchorage, Alaska, did not lead to the result that the US leader had indicated as his objective, namely an agreement for a ceasefire in Ukraine.
  
  
• At the end of the meeting, during the press conference, the two leaders did not provide concrete indications about what had been discussed (moreover, in a significantly shorter time than initially expected).
  
  
• There is one fixed point, however: Trump said he was in favor of the Russian position, which does not accept the idea of a ceasefire as a precondition for peace negotiations, and maintains that he is instead aiming to reach a comprehensive peace agreement.
  
  
• Returning from the summit in Alaska, Trump informed the leaders of Ukraine, the Commission of what had been discussed during the summit European, NATO, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Finland and other countries.
  
  
• European and American sources, speaking to various international newspapers (including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Axios, Reuters) have outlined a picture - albeit necessarily partial - of Putin's conditions.
  
  
• In summary, to stop the fighting and achieve peace, Moscow:
  - demands that Ukraine withdraw from two regions of Donbass: Luhansk and Donetsk. The request also concerns areas currently not occupied by the Russian Army ;
  - says it is willing to freeze the situation along the current front line in the regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. The freeze would entail the annexation of Ukrainian territories to Russia.
  - it would be ready to ceded limited portions of the currently occupied Sumy and Kharkiv regions ;
  - it demands answers to the root causes that, according to the Kremlin, led to the war. This expression refers to a series of circumstances including the accession to NATO of some countries that were part of the Soviet sphere of influence;
  - it would commit not to attack further Ukrainian territory or other countries;
  -   - it is open to Ukraine's request for security guarantees  in the style of NATO's Article 5; The United States and European countries could provide them;
  - asks that Russian be recognized, together with Ukrainian, as the official language of Ukraine ;
  - asks that the Russian Orthodox Church be guaranteed full freedom of worship and operation on Ukrainian territory (according to Ukrainian services, Orthodox churches serve as a propaganda and espionage hub).
  - asks for the recognition of Crimea as a Russian zone: the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea has been occupied by Russia since 2014.
  - expects the cancellation of the sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union and other countries.