The past week has seen a frenzy of diplomatic activity on Ukraine, culminating in Donald Trump’s extraordinary announcement that he will host Vladimir Putin in Alaska for talks on the war. Setting aside the propriety of Putin visiting the United States (he launched this war of aggression and is wanted by the ICC for the systematic abduction of Ukrainian children) what could such a summit actually achieve? Would Ukraine really be willing to trade land for a ceasefire? And would Putin simply use a pause in hostilities to regroup?

I put these questions and more to Evelyn Farkas, a longtime Ukraine specialist who is now the CEO of the McCain Institute.

We spoke just hours before Trump announced the Alaska summit and we kick off with a discussion about the current state-of-play of the conflict on the ground before discussing the prospects of a diplomatic solution to this conflict.