It could, but only if Trump is very determined to make it go there.
Consider:
He means to go on the offensive and recover a bunch of territory from the Russians. They haven’t engaged in anything significant in that regard since the invasion of Kursk last summer, and the last time they recovered significant territory in Ukraine was the Kherson counteroffensive in late 2022. There was a significant attempt at a counteroffensive in the Zaporizhzhia region in summer 2023, but it didn’t achieve anything significant.
Well, sure, but they’re not trying to do that. They’re trying to win the war, and they’re not going to be able to do that using the same strategies that Russia is using to lose it.
Maybe. Ukraine wins when Russia has a new government and returns to the 2000-era borders. And stays there forever.
All else is managed gradations of defeat.
The industry is gone. At one time it was a major industrial sector, but one that was tightly entwined with the Russian industrial sector. Parts flowed back and forth across the border and a lot of the manufacturing trade (as opposed to stuff like steel) was internal to the old Soviet system, rather than exports to the West. A good deal of the shit they produced was indeed a little obsolete and shit by western standards. But a Ukrainian appliance was cheaper than an imported Bosch, so they sold in places like Belarus. A lot of that network was destroyed at the first outbreak of hostilities in 2014 and certainly little or nothing survives today. Rebuilding the Donbas today will be like rebuilding Germany after WW II. Doable, but only on a generational scale and with one hell of a Marshall Plan-like investment. Russia doesn’t have that kind of cash, so even if they won they’re taking possession of an economic basket case that’s going to negatively weigh down their already shuddering economy for decades. The mineral deposits aren’t really worth it. This is about prestige and geopolitics at this point, not money.
Same goes for Ukraine of course, but at least they have a better chance of attracting speculative western investment.
Why is this tank flying both a Russian and American flag?
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=russain+tank+with+american+flag
Propaganda, as the video originates from Russian media. What exactly they are trying to convey, and whether the message is intended primarily for domestic consumption or international I don’t know.
This meeting really is extraordinarily. The European leaders have to change Trump’s position and make him think that eating his vegetables was his idea.
They also have to act like they are not utterly appalled at the way Trump has treated Putin with such bon ami and the statements Trump has been making. I’ve been saying all along that his threats against Russia are empty and are simply stringing out the Europeans. I don’t see Russia stopping the attacks on Ukraine’s cities so where are the tariffs Mr Trump?
The other videos on that page are labelled to say the vehicle itself is a captured US vehicle, so the message seems fairly obviously one of defiance, though not, of course, as significant as the Russian PTB would like.
It’s amazing how possibly careless words after the Anchorage meeting shook up the European leaders. They saw this as a threat to Europe’s future security.
I agree that this a historical moment in history. The future of possible Russian expansion and war may hinge on decisions made in 2025-26.
Link European leaders rush to US to help Ukraine avoid 'capitulation’
Could someone explain the phrase “land swap” in this context? Are there really serious proposals that some territory could be transferred from Russia to Ukraine? If so, where?
The “swap” is trading land for peace. You know, like Czechoslovakia in 1938.
How’d that work out?
It bought peace in their time! Well, eventually. The details took seven years to work out.
It seems like Volodymyr Zelensky is getting closer to a meeting with Putin.
I can’t imagine meeting the man that wants me and my family dead. Allegedly there have been attempts on Volodymyr Zelensky’s life. Wasn’t he and other Ukrainian officials targeted the first night of the invasion?
I’m not convinced a one on one meeting will be productive. It’s too personal for either man to think or react rationally.
Negotiations are best left to a team of professionals that represent their governments.
See what happens when I try to be funny? I get out-funnied!
I wonder if Zelensky knows the old ‘Luger up the sleeve trick’.
I wouldn’t drink or eat any refreshments from the table. 
I have the impression that in Trump’s mind, it means swapping territory held on the battlefield, i.e., Russia gives back some land it has seized in return for other bits of Ukraine that it wants. Trump seems to think that this war is over some sort of no man’s land, with Ukraine’s and Russia’s claims to it of equal merit (and/or, bizarrely, that Ukraine started the fighting).
I see – thanks.