Sloviansk, Ukraine —

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 bea

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