The US President's original 28-point peace plan, which was accepted by the Kremlin, had called for a "neutral, demilitarized buffer zone" to be established once Ukrainian troops withdraw from the Donbas region and the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, in preparation for Kyiv to cede territory.
As Donald Trump prepared to meet Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August, Russia launched an offensive in eastern Ukraine. Small groups of soldiers pushed forward near Dobropillia and, meeting little resistance, they advanced 15 to 20 km and seized a chain of villages. It is a small pocket of land, but one that has driven perceptions of the war in the last months.