Istanbul: Russia is demanding Ukraine cede all of its eastern Donbas region, but would be willing to freeze the conflict in the south of the country along current front lines, Turkiye’s top diplomat has said.
Russia occupies around one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, and has claimed to have annexed five of the country’s regions — Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, along with Crimea, which it seized in 2014.
At peace talks in Istanbul this year, Russia’s negotiators demanded Ukraine pull out of those regions entirely as a precondition to ending the conflict that started with Russia’s 2022 invasion.
But following a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, Moscow has scaled back its demands, Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said.
“Now they have given up on that demand and are staying on the contact lines, except for one region ... There is currently a preliminary (agreement) regarding the return of 25-30 percent of Donetsk and maintaining the contact line in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson,” Fidan said in an interview with TGRT Haber on Thursday.
It was not clear who that agreement was between. Ukraine has repeatedly rejected territorial concessions, though President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously said Kyiv would need to secure the return of land through diplomacy, not on the battlefield.
Russia has had total control of Crimea since 2014 and already occupies practically the entire Lugansk region.
Though Moscow controls most of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, Ukraine holds the regional capitals there.
Asked about Fidan’s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was “deliberately not disclosing all the details of the conversation between the two presidents in Alaska” as doing so would hinder the peace process.
The claimed shift in Russia’s position had previously been reported based on briefings by anonymous officials.
Turkiye has hosted three rounds of Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul in recent months that have failed to break the deadlock.
Though a deadly strike on Kyiv that killed at least 23 people on Thursday further set back progress toward peace, Fidan hailed some diplomatic movement.
“The fact they have stated this themselves and have agreed to have it guaranteed by a security mechanism in principle ... actually provides a truly remarkable framework in this war,” he added.
However, he acknowledged it would be difficult for Ukraine to give up its territory, including heavily fortified terrain that could leave Ukraine vulnerable.
“Once that territory is given up, the remaining area becomes a bit difficult to protect strategically,” he said.
“But when you factor in security mechanisms and guarantees, you have to look at how the issue will unfold.”
Turkiye says Russia scales back Ukraine territorial demands
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Turkiye says Russia scales back Ukraine territorial demands
- Russia occupies around one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory
Lawsuit challenges Trump administration’s ending of protections for Somalis
- The lawsuit cites a series of statements Trump has made describing Somalis as “garbage” and “low IQ people” who “contribute nothing.”
BOSTON: Immigrant rights advocates filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to stop US President Donald Trump’s administration from next week ending legal protections that allow nearly 1,100 Somalis to live and work in the United States. The lawsuit, brought by four Somalis and two advocacy groups, challenges the US Department of Homeland Security’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Somali immigrants, whom Trump has derided in public remarks. Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in January announced that TPS for Somalis would end on March 17, arguing that Somalia’s conditions had improved, despite fighting continuing between Somali forces and Al-Shabab militants. The plaintiffs, who include the groups African Communities Together and Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans, in the lawsuit filed in Boston federal court argue the move was procedurally flawed and driven by a discriminatory, predetermined agenda.
The lawsuit cites a series of statements Trump has made describing Somalis as “garbage” and “low IQ people” who “contribute nothing.”
The plaintiffs said the administration is ending TPS for Somalia and other countries due to unconstitutional bias against non-white immigrants, not based on objective assessments of country conditions.
“The termination of TPS for Somalia is racism masking as immigration policy,” Omar Farah, executive director at the legal group Muslim Advocates, said in a statement.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment. It has previously said TPS was “never intended to be a de facto amnesty program.”
TPS is a form of humanitarian immigration protection that shields eligible migrants from deportation and allows them to work. Under Noem, DHS has moved to end TPS for a dozen countries, sparking legal challenges. The administration on Saturday announced plans to pursue an appeal at the US Supreme Court in order to end TPS for over 350,000 Haitians. It also wants the high court to allow it to end TPS for about 6,000 Syrians.
SOMALI COMMUNITY TARGETED
Somalia was first designated for TPS in 1991, with its latest extension in 2024. About 1,082 Somalis currently hold TPS, and 1,383 more have pending applications, according to DHS. Somalis in Minnesota in recent months had become a target of Trump’s immigration crackdown, with officials pointing to a fraud scandal in which many people charged come from the state’s large Somali community. The Trump administration cited those fraud allegations as a basis for a months-long immigration enforcement surge in Democratic-led Minnesota, during which about 3,000 immigration agents were deployed, spurring protests and leading to the killing of two US citizens by federal agents.
In November, Trump announced he would end TPS for Somalis in Minnesota, and a month later said he wanted them sent “back to where they came from.”
The US Department of State advises against traveling to Somalia, citing crime and civil unrest among numerous factors.
