Subject: Re: Let’s See If This Pans Out for Putin
This thread began 211 posts ago. I think that may be a record and I will submit this thread to Ripley's "Believe it Or Not" for recognition of our collective, heroic effort (waste of time).

Seriously, it's been interesting. And though nobody seems to have changed their mind, perhaps the back and forth has helped clarify our positions to ourselves and each other.

This thread began with an extensive quote from Substack's "Counteroffensive", the heart of which is:

A vast expanse of wire, concrete, trenches, and gravel snaking across the entire Ukrainian front line, serving as one of the country’s most vital defenses against a full-blown Russian takeover.

This fortification belt in the Donetsk region is the top prize Putin wants to claim in negotiations to end the war, and he will undoubtedly go into his face-to-face meeting with Trump today hoping the American president will help him get it.

Of course, Putin hasn’t said this out loud. The Kremlin is pushing for control of the entire Donetsk region, which would push Ukrainian defenses out of the trench lines and into the open, making Ukraine much more vulnerable to future attack.

The Russian leader will almost certainly try to charm his American counterpart into putting more pressure on Ukraine to make this massive concession.

It’s a region the Russians have been unable to capture fully since 2014, thanks largely to the powerful system of fortifications there. At the current pace of the Russian army’s advance, it would take them many years to seize full control.

Giving this defense belt up would enable unhindered, rapid advances of Russian equipment and threaten Ukraine’s very existence as a state.

This defensive belt is currently in Ukrainian hands, but it is part of the territory that Putin wants for himself- not only as part of the oblasts which he has unilaterally claimed as historical Russian territory (a lie), but also as a strategic objective that has heretofore broken Russian designs and Russian military attacks. Capturing it (to this point- impossible)or having it given to him on a platter (the whole point of Putin's dance in Alaska) would enable a swift Russian drive to Kiev and the end of Ukrainian independence. (Or, as this thread has made clear, it might simply introduce the opening chapter of a Ukrainian insurgency and a Russian reign of terror as Putin attempts to stamp out that insurgency.)

I ended the post (written a week ago) with the following words:

Not that Zelensky would ever agree to it, but let’s see if Trump emerges from Putin’s nether regions with this demand on his lips.

That was before the meeting in Alaska, and before the meeting in Washington that followed. Now the question is: Is this what happened? After all of the Kabuki Theater of Alaska and Washington, did Trump in fact emerge from Putin's nether regions with the demand that Ukraine give up Donetsk and Luhansk (and its defensive belt)?

What does Ukraine stand to gain if it signs onto this "peace deal"?

What does the US stand to gain? Europe? Russia? Ukraine?

What is Putin's word worth?

What is Trump's word worth?

What was accomplished in Anchorage and Washington other than the effusive production of flowery words?