 "Peace without Ukraine is “against peace”, says Zelenskyy ahead of Alaska summit")
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cancelled the scheduled meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, stating that any peace agreement that did not include Kyiv would result in “dead solutions.”
After weeks of complaining that more was not being done to stop the violence, the summit, which is set for this Friday in Alaska, is viewed as a possible turning point.
Zelenskyy stressed that Ukraine’s voice must be heard at the table for a durable peace and stated that Ukraine’s constitutionally guaranteed territorial integrity must not be negotiable in a message uploaded on Telegram.
According to Zelenskyy, Ukraine “will not give Russia any awards for what it has done” and “Ukrainians will not 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 solutions that are without Ukraine, are at the same time, solutions against peace. They will not bring anything. These are dead solutions, they will never work.”
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.
Trump said he will meet with Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.
“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,” Russian state news agency RIA Novosti cited Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, as saying.
Such a summit may prove pivotal in a war that began more than three years ago 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.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIn comments to reporters at 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 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. Trump also previously agreed to meet with Putin even if the Russian leader would not meet with Zelenskyy. That stoked fears in Europe that Ukraine could be sidelined in efforts to stop the continent’s biggest conflict since World War II.
Trump’s announcement that he planned to host one of America’s adversaries on US soil broke with expectations that they’d meet in a third country. The gesture gives Putin validation after the US and its allies had long sought to make him a pariah over his war against Ukraine.
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