Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv won’t cede territory to bring an end to war but is ready to work with US President Donald Trump for real and lasting peace.
“Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram and X that also called any deal reached without Kyiv’s involvement as a “dead solution.”
Trump announced on Friday that he’ll meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15, with the apparent exclusion of Zelenskiy from talks aimed at ending Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, now well into its fourth year.
Senior officials from Ukraine, the US and Europe are set to meet in the UK ahead of Trump’s summit with Putin, according to people familiar with the plan.
The comments were Zelenskiy’s first response to news of that meeting as well as reports that talks between Washington and Moscow center around a deal that would lock in Russia’s occupation of territory seized during its military invasion, according to people familiar.
That includes a demand by Putin that Ukraine cede Crimea, which Kremlin forces illegally annexed in 2014, as well as its entire eastern Donbas area. It would require Zelenskiy to withdraw troops from parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions still held by Kyiv.
Any decisions taken without Ukraine “are at the same time decisions against peace. They will not achieve anything,” Zelenskiy said. “The answer to the Ukrainian territorial question is already in the Constitution of Ukraine. No one will and will not be able to deviate from this.”
Ukraine is ready to work with Trump and “all our partners” for a “peace that will not fall apart because of Moscow’s desire,” Zelenskiy said.
Amid preparations for talks, Russia and Ukraine continued to trade air attacks overnight. Through 8 a.m. Moscow time, Russia shot down a total of 118 Ukrainian drones over its territory, according to nation’s defense ministry. Two UAVs targeting Moscow were downed in the morning, Russian capital’s mayor said in Telegram posts.
Ukraine’s air forces on Telegram reported 47 drones and two Iskander missiles fired by Russia overnight. According to preliminary data, as of 9:00 a.m. local time, air defenses had repelled one Iskander missile and 16 UAVs.
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