Ukrainian President on Saturday explicitly dismissed President ’s proposal that Kyiv might need to cede land as part of a peace agreement with Russia.
“Ukrainians will not surrender their territory to the aggressor,” Zelensky stated, mere hours after Trump disclosed plans to convene with Russian President Vladimir Putin the following week in Alaska, a meeting from which Ukrainian representatives would be excluded, to deliberate on resolving the conflict in Ukraine.
Zelensky seemingly took offense to both the idea of relinquishing land and the notion of negotiations proceeding without Ukraine’s involvement.
“Any choices made against us, any choices made excluding Ukraine, are concurrently choices against peace. They will yield no results. These are unproductive decisions; they will never succeed,” Zelensky declared in a . He further stated that Ukraine “will not reward Russia for its actions.”
On Friday at the White House, President Trump declared his intention to meet Putin on August 15 in Alaska, a region formerly part of the Russian Empire before the United States acquired it in 1867. He indicated that a future peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia would involve “some exchange of territories for the mutual benefit of both.”
“We will regain some, and some will be traded,” Trump further commented.
This proposed summit in Alaska would mark the initial direct engagement between incumbent U.S. and Russian presidents since Joe Biden’s meeting with Putin in Geneva in June 2021.
Consistent with his previous responses when the topic of surrendering occupied Ukrainian land arose, Zelensky referenced his nation’s Constitution—which stipulates that its territory is inalienable—in dismissing the suggestion.
“The resolution to Ukraine’s territorial matter is already enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine,” he affirmed. “No one will deviate from this, nor will anyone be capable of doing so.”
Trump’s declaration of peace discussions with Putin coincided with the very day he had set as a deadline for the Russian leader to consent to a ceasefire, failing which Russia would confront “very harsh tariffs” and a fresh round of sanctions intended to incapacitate its oil commerce and financial networks.
The Kremlin corroborated the summit in an online statement, indicating that the two heads of state would “concentrate on exploring avenues for reaching a lasting peaceful settlement to the Ukrainian crisis.”