Luhansk

On Friday, Reuters news agency reported that it had seen proposals from the US that included American legal acceptance of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and de facto recognition of Russian control of other occupied areas, including all of Luhansk in the east of the country.

The US deal offers American legal acceptance of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and de facto recognition of Russian control of other occupied areas, including all of Luhansk region.

Russia's occupation of almost 20% of Ukraine would be de facto recognised behind existing front lines, in effect freezing the conflict in four Ukrainian regions: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

But there seems to be a framework along the following lines: Russia would halt its invasion along current lines, and would give up its ambition to control the remaining parts of the four regions of eastern Ukraine it has yet to occupy, namely Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

Their fate was sealed when Russia declared the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk "people's republics" - separatist entities it had helped to set up - as independent states.