Chicago – August 12, 2025
On the beaches of Sloviansk’s tiny salt lake, where the medicinal waters provide a moment of solace from the whirling violence of the eastern frontlines just a few miles away, talk of a Ukraine land deal at Friday’s Alaska summit seems dark and surreal.
“I feel like I just float away from this reality,” said local journalist Mykhailo, in between dips into the water, from the lake’s sands overlooked by a large concrete bomb shelter. Shelling is regular near here, which Mykhailo jokingly calls “the Salt Lake City of Sloviansk”.
But the Kremlin’s proposal to US special envoy Steve Witkoff to exchange a ceasefire for the parts of Donbass Russia has yet to conquer means this town, and those near it, could suddenly become Moscow’s territory. And even on this quiet beach, it’s caused what Mykhailo calls “panic.”
Across the Donetsk region, word of Witkoff’s emerging deal with the Kremlin, confused in details, and immediately refused by Kyiv, has put lives already ravaged by war into a deeper spin.
The town of Sloviansk was first taken by Moscow’s proxy “separatists” in 2014 before Ukrainian forces retook control. New ditches have been hastily dug to its west to prepare for the possibility Russia’s ongoing offensive might threaten the town itself once again. But few imagined their key ally, the United States, might entertain the idea of giving their home away.
