Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free
Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected Donald Trump’s suggestion that a peace deal with Russia could involve “some swapping of territories”, insisting that Ukrainians “will not gift their land to the occupier”.
The Ukrainian president’s remarks in a video address on Saturday came a day after Trump announced that he would meet Vladimir Putin in Alaska next week.
“The answer to the Ukrainian territorial question is already in the constitution in Ukraine. No one will deviate from this — and no one will be able to,” Zelenskyy said on Saturday.
Trump announced on Friday on the Truth Social platform that his “highly anticipated” meeting with Putin would take place on August 15.
The US president added that a peace deal would probably involve Kyiv ceding territory, suggesting that Russia had not given up on the maximalist demands it had made in 2022.
“It’s very complicated. We’re going to get some back, we’re going to get some switched. There will be some swapping of territories, to the betterment of both,” Trump said at the White House.
Senior Ukrainian officials told the Financial Times that the Russian proposal included a freezing of the frontline in south-eastern Ukraine if Kyiv agreed to pull back from parts of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions that it still controlled.
Moscow has previously laid claim to the entire Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions despite the two regional capitals remaining under Ukrainian control.
Swaths of land controlled by Russian forces in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions as well as small areas in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions may be up for discussion, the officials said.
Kyiv has consistently maintained that ceding territory would be a non-starter in negotiations.
“Ukraine is ready for real decisions that can bring peace. Any decisions that are against us, any decisions that are without Ukraine, are at the same time decisions against peace,” Zelenskyy said.
Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister, said that “we need a lasting peace that won’t be destroyed by Moscow’s next move”.
Leaders in the Baltic states criticised any push to force Ukraine into ceding territory amid worries that the region could be a target for Putin.
“If borders can be changed by force, none are safe . . . Sovereignty and territorial integrity are the cornerstones of global stability. We will not reward aggression — not in Ukraine, not anywhere,” Margus Tsahkna, Estonia’s foreign minister, said on Saturday.
Baiba Braže, Latvia’s foreign minister, said: “Just, lasting, dignified peace is what we all want, Ukrainians the most. Such peace must involve Ukraine and uphold its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Russia’s summer offensive has failed to achieve a deep breakthrough. But assaults by small squads of infantry and drone strikes have repeatedly targeted Ukrainian logistical lines, threatening several cities along the frontline.
Ukraine has spent the past few years fortifying the big cities in the Donetsk region that Moscow is reportedly demanding Kyiv give up. More than 120,000 people still live in Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, the two main cities in the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Donetsk region.
“If Ukraine cedes territory without concessions or enforceable guarantees, Russia would then seize fortified defensive lines at no cost,” a former Ukrainian officer who runs analytical group Frontelligence Insight wrote on X.
“From that position Moscow will renew hostilities with impunity.”
Additional reporting by Richard Milne in Oslo and Christopher Miller in New York
Read the full article here