It’s been painful to observe the wretched state of reporting in the runup to the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska this Friday. Admittedly, the Trump side gaslighted the press with talk of territory swaps, an idea which if it was voiced in the Putin-Witokff talk in Russia, was a US scheme. The Associated Press, early on, was one of the very few mainstream media venues to put paid to this blather. On August 10, from Russia and Ukraine hold fast to their demands ahead of a planned Putin-Trump summit.

The Associated Press pointed out that Russia offered two peace proposals to Ukraine in June, both of which had Russia controlling the four oblasts that it now recognizes as Russia, even though it has yet to secure all of that territory. It indicated that there was no signal that Russia intended to relent on these demands. Separately, many commentators have pointed out