 "Zelenskyy calls Alaska summit ‘personal victory’ for Putin, says it delays sanctions, ends Russian leader's isolation")
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday said that his Russian counterpart has scored a “personal victory” by receiving an invitation to meet President Donald Trump on US territory, asserting that the move has further delayed sanctions against Moscow.
“First, he will meet on US territory, which I consider his personal victory. Second, he is coming out of isolation because he is meeting on US territory. Third, with this meeting, he has somehow postponed sanctions,” AFP quoted Zelenskyy as telling reporters.
President Zelenskyy warned that Friday’s summit could delay the imposition of new US sanctions on Russia — measures Trump previously vowed to enforce if Putin failed to end the war.
Reacting to Trump’s suggestion that he and Putin might negotiate a land swap to end the war, Zelenskyy ruled out withdrawing troops from Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as part of a peace deal.
“We will not withdraw from the Donbas… if we withdraw from the Donbas today - our fortifications, our terrain, the heights we control - we will clearly open a bridgehead for the Russians to prepare an offensive,” AFP quoted Zelenskyy as telling reporters.
The Donbas region, comprising the eastern Ukrainian territories of Luhansk and Donetsk, has been a key target of Russia since its full-scale invasion began in 2022.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsMoscow claims both regions as part of its own territory.
Zelenskyy, who is not scheduled to take part, has expressed concern that Russia will put forward hardline demands and that Trump will hammer out a deal that will see Ukraine cede swathes of territory.
Zelenskyy also said he had received a “signal” from US envoy Steve Witkoff that Russia might agree to a ceasefire, without elaborating.
“This was the first signal from them,” Zelenskyy added.
The summit, set to take place in Alaska on Friday, will be the first between a sitting US and Russian president since 2021 and comes as Trump seeks to broker an end to Russia’s nearly three-and-a-half year invasion of Ukraine.
Russia planning new ground assaults
On the battlefield, Zelenskyy warned that Russian forces had made significant gains near the coal-mining town of Dobropillia and were preparing fresh ground offensives in at least three separate sectors along the front line.
“Russian units have advanced 10 kilometres (six miles) deep in several spots. They all have no equipment, only weapons in their hands. Some have already been found, some destroyed, some taken prisoner. We will find the rest and destroy them in the near future,” Zelenskyy said.
A map from Ukrainian battlefield tracker DeepState — which maintains close ties with the military — showed Russian forces making a double-pronged push roughly 10 kilometers (six miles) deep near Dobropillia, a narrow stretch of the front line.
The town, which had a pre-war population of around 30,000, has faced frequent Russian drone strikes.
The advance also puts pressure on Kostiantynivka, a heavily damaged city and one of the last major urban centers in Donetsk still under Ukrainian control.
Russian troops have been steadily gaining ground for months, exploiting the strain on Ukraine’s depleted defenses.
The Ukrainian army said Tuesday it was engaged in “difficult” battles with Russian forces in the east, but denied Russia had a foothold near Dobropillia.
“The situation is difficult and dynamic,” it said in a statement.
Trump has described his summit with Putin on Friday as a chance to check the Russian leader’s ideas for ending the war.
European leaders have meanwhile sought to ensure respect for Kyiv’s interests.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, has made costly but incremental gains across the front in recent months and claims to have annexed four Ukrainian regions while still fighting to control them.
Ukrainian police meanwhile said that Russian attacks in the past hours had killed three people and wounded 12 others, including a child.
With inputs from agencies
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