US President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin are meeting Friday for a summit in Alaska aimed at bringing an end to the grinding war that has followed Russia’s full-scale invasion of 2022.
Any peace deal around Ukraine would need to involve agreement on territory, with Russia currently occupying almost a fifth of Ukraine’s land. Last Friday, Trump suggested a ceasefire deal could involve “some swapping of territories,” but it is not yet clear what areas he was referring to, and Ukraine has categorically rejected ceding parts of its land. Russia, too, has rejected the idea.
Earlier this week, small groups of Russian troops pierced parts of Ukraine’s defenses in its eastern Donetsk region, according to local officials, as Russia appeared to be making an 11th-hour dash to snatch as much territory as possible ahead of Friday’s summit.
Here are some of the stories that made headlines over the past week, as well as some photos that caught our eye.
