KYIV, Ukraine, Aug 10: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday rejected the idea that his country would give up land to end the war with Russia after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested a peace deal could include “some swapping of territories,” AP reported.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine “will not give Russia any awards for what it has done” and that “Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.”
Later Saturday, European and Ukrainian officials met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance in England to discuss how to end the more than three-year war. The talks came after Trump said he would meet with Vladimir Putin even if the Russian leader would not meet with Zelenskyy.
Representatives from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Finland and Poland attended the meeting in Kent, Zelenskyy said in a post on X, calling the talks constructive.
“I have not heard any partners express doubts about America’s ability to ensure that the war ends,” Zelenskyy said. “The President of the United States has the levers and the determination.”
Earlier in the day, Zelenskyy dismissed the planned Trump-Putin summit, scheduled for Friday in Alaska, warning that any negotiations to end Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II must include Kyiv.
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“Any decisions that are without Ukraine are at the same time decisions against peace. They will not bring anything. These are dead decisions. They will never work,” he said.
Ukrainian officials previously told The Associated Press privately that Kyiv would be amenable to a peace deal that would de facto recognize Ukraine’s inability to regain lost territories militarily.
The Trump-Putin summit
The Trump-Putin meeting may prove pivotal in a war that began when Russia invaded its western neighbor and has led to tens of thousands of deaths, although there’s no guarantee it will stop the fighting since Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on their conditions for peace.
“It seems entirely logical for our delegation to fly across the Bering Strait simply, and for such an important and anticipated summit of the leaders of the two countries to be held in Alaska,” Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Saturday in a statement posted to the Kremlin’s news channel.
The president of the European Union and leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Finland and the UK issued a joint statement late Saturday in support of Ukraine and ending the war.
“We are convinced that only an approach that combines active diplomacy, support to Ukraine and pressure on the Russian Federation to end their illegal war can succeed,” the statement said.
In his comments at the White House Friday, Trump gave no details on the “swapping of territories.” Analysts, including some close to the Kremlin, have suggested that Russia could offer to give up territory it controls outside of the four regions it claims to have annexed.
Trump said his meeting with Putin would come before any sit-down discussion involving Zelenskyy. His announcement that he planned to host one of America’s adversaries on U.S. soil broke with expectations that they’d meet in a third country.
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