There was a moment a few days ago when it looked as if Donald Trump had made Ukraine's

President Zelensky an offer that could have been written by Vladimir Putin himself.

Seed to Russia everything Moscow wants.

Then it became more complicated.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been active in negotiations.

Mr. Trump's special envoy,

Steve Whitkoff, continues to be chummy with the Kremlin key players.

The Europeans have been trying to find a way into the discussions after Zelensky met

Emmanuel Macron in Paris with other European leaders on the line too.

But any real deal seems as elusive as ever. To try to make sense of what's

going on and what peace could look like, we're going to hear from a US arms control expert

and former ambassador to Ukraine. I'm Gavin Esler, and this is not a drill. Stephen Pfeiffer is a former US ambassador to Ukraine, an affiliate of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, and the author of The Eagle and the Trident, U.S.-Ukraine Relations in turbulent times. Stephen, well, we can say those times

may have changed, but they're still turbulent. Can we begin with the battlefield? Putin claims Russia

has taken a key target, Pukrovsk. How significant is this? Because Ukraine says you've got a bit

of it, but you haven't got all of it.

I mean, do we really know what's going on in the battlefield?

No, I think it's clear that the Russians probably have most of Prakos, but they have not taken

all of it at this point. But it's important to remember the Russian army has been trying to

take Percos now for 18 months. And that I think is something that people need to

bear in mind about the broader picture of the battlefield. Over the last two years, Russia has gone

from occupying about 17% of Ukraine to about 19%. So they've acquired about 2% more territory in two

years. At 19%, that's still one-third less than what Russia occupied at their

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