Greetings on this Monday, August the 11th, 2025.

Welcome to Denison Forum's Daily Article podcast.

Today's daily article is authored by our CEO, Dr. Jim Denison, and narrated by Chris Elkins.

President Trump has announced that he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska this Friday.

In related news, Putin told the U.S. he would halt his war with Ukraine in exchange for land in eastern Ukraine

and global recognition of Russia's claim to the territory.

We also learned yesterday that the White House is considering inviting Ukrainian president

Vladimir Zelensky to Alaska as well.

How likely is it that Ukraine would make such a land exchange or that Putin would honor a peace

achieved in this way?

These questions point to a larger question foundational to the war and its global consequences.

Putin claims four eastern Ukrainian regions, Lujansk, Downetska, Zaporizia, and Kyrsan,

as well as the Black Sea Peninsula of Crimea, which he annexed in 2014.

According to an analysis by the ISW, the Institute for Study of War, if Ukraine does not concede

these lands, Russia's occupation of them through military means, quote, is neither inevitable

nor imminent, as Russian forces will face serious operational

obstacles in what are likely to be multi-year endeavors. In quote, even if Ukraine were to concede

these regions on its border with Russia, would Putin stop there? The ISW paper states that

Putin has recently claimed that all of Ukraine is Russia's.

To this end, the analysis reports that Putin remains committed to, quote, replacing the democratically

elected Ukrainian government with a pro-Russian puppet government, reducing Ukraine's military such that Ukraine cannot defend itself from future aggression and destroying the Ukrainian state, identity, and culture, and subjugating the Ukrainian people.

In quote. According to Paul De Neri, a leading expert on Russia-Ukraine relations, much of the Russian elite,

...