Historic meeting takes place, Trump and Putin shake hands

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have met in Alaska.

They held hands, and walked on the red carpet.

Putin is expected to resist the idea of accepting the ceasefire, which has been the main target from this meeting.

Trump said he wants to use this summit to pave the way for another meeting that would include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

I believe it will be a good date, but even more important will be the second meeting we have. We'll have a meeting with President Putin, President Zelensky, me, and maybe we'll invite European leaders, maybe not”, Trump said 14 August.

Trump has made it clear that he wants to reach a truce as soon as possible, as the first step towards the final solution.

Zelensky has been excluded from the talks and has warned that decisions made in his absence will be meaningless.

The issue of territorial concessions is something Zelensky has consistently rejected. Trump said before the summit that he would not force Kiev to hand over land, but his suggestion that Putin and Zelensky “can share things” has raised the alarm in Kiev.

Russia controls about one fifth of Ukrainian territory, which makes up approximately 4,500 square miles [14,000 sq km].

The war front line is about 1,000 miles [1,000 km] long and runs through the areas of Harkive, Luhansk, Donjeck, Zaporigja, and Herson.

Both sides continue to face major losses, but earlier in the month Russia has begun to score victories east of Ukraine, advancing 10km as the army concentrates around the regions of Toretsk and Pokrovsk.

Moscow continues to advance the strategy that military analysts have seen as trading many victims into war in exchange for a small portion of the earth.