Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Saturday the planned summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, warning that any peace deal excluding Kyiv would result in “dead solutions.”
The Trump-Putin meeting, scheduled for Friday in Alaska, is seen as a possible breakthrough within the greater than three-year war.
Trump had previously agreed to satisfy with Putin even when the Russian leader wouldn’t meet with Zelenskyy, stoking fears Ukraine might be sidelined in efforts to stop the continent’s biggest conflict since World War II.
In an announcement posted to Telegram, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s territorial integrity, enshrined within the structure, should be non-negotiable and emphasized that lasting peace must include Ukraine’s voice on the table.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine “won’t give Russia any awards for what it has done” and that “Ukrainians won’t give their land to the occupier.”
Touching on Ukrainian anxieties that a direct meeting between Putin and Trump could marginalize Kyiv and European interests, Zelenskyy said: “Any decisions which might be without Ukraine are at the identical time decisions against peace. They’ll not bring anything. These are dead decisions. They’ll never work.”
Ukrainian officials had previously told the Associated Press privately that Kyiv can be amenable to a peace deal that may de facto recognize Ukraine’s inability to regain lost territories militarily.
Trump said he’ll meet with Putin to debate ending the war in Ukraine.
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“It seems entirely logical for our delegation to fly across the Bering Strait simply, and for such a crucial and anticipated summit of the leaders of the 2 countries to be held in Alaska,” Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Saturday in an announcement posted to the Kremlin’s news channel.
The summit may prove pivotal in a war that began when Russia invaded its western neighbor and has led to tens of 1000’s of deaths, although there’s no guarantee it would stop the fighting since Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on their conditions for peace.
In comments to reporters on the White House before his post confirming the date and place, Trump suggested that any agreement would likely involve “some swapping of territories,” but he gave no details. Analysts, including some near the Kremlin, have suggested that Russia could offer to present up territory it controls outside of the 4 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 in all America’s adversaries on U.S. soil broke with expectations that they’d meet in a 3rd country. The gesture gives Putin validation after the U.S. and its allies had long sought to make him a pariah over his war against Ukraine.
Nigel Gould-Davies, an associate fellow of Chatham House, told The Associated Press the “symbology” of holding the summit in Alaska was clear, and that the situation “naturally favors Russia.”
“It’s easy to assume Putin making the purpose … we once had this territory and we gave it to you, due to this fact Ukraine had this territory and now should give it to us,” he said, referring to the 1867 transaction referred to as the Alaska Purchase when Russia sold Alaska to america for $7.2 million.
Exasperated that Putin didn’t heed his calls to stop bombing Ukrainian cities, Trump, almost two weeks ago, moved up his ultimatum to impose additional sanctions on Russia and introduce secondary tariffs targeting countries that buy Russian oil if the Kremlin didn’t move toward a settlement.
The deadline was Friday.
However the White House didn’t answer questions that evening in regards to the state of possible sanctions after Trump announced an upcoming meeting with Putin.
Gould-Davies likened attempts to know what appears to be Trump’s latest pivot toward Moscow to “Kremlinology,” the Cold War-era practice of deciphering opaque signals from Soviet leadership.
“We’re … searching for clues and for hints … about what the hell is occurring; what the combination of influences around Trump and indeed in Trump’s head is propelling his latest statement,” he said.
“It’s as if his disillusionment with Putin … never happened,” Gould-Davies noted, pointing to a sudden return to the more conciliatory Russia policy Trump embraced in the beginning of his presidency.
Prior to Trump announcing the meeting with Putin, his efforts to pressure Russia into stopping the fighting had delivered no progress.
The Kremlin’s greater army is slowly advancing deeper into Ukraine at great cost in troops and armor while it relentlessly bombards Ukrainian cities.
Russia and Ukraine are far apart on their terms for peace.
Two people died and 16 were wounded Saturday when a Russian drone hit a minibus within the suburbs of the Ukrainian city of Kherson, regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said. Two others died after a Russian drone struck their automotive within the Zaporizhzhia region, in response to regional Gov. Ivan Fedorov.
Ukraine’s air force said Saturday it intercepted 16 of the 47 Russian drones launched overnight, while 31 drones hit targets across 15 different locations. It also said it shot down one in all the 2 missiles Russia deployed.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 97 Ukrainian drones over Russia and the Black Sea overnight and 21 more on Saturday morning.
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