Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected any peace deal that would involve Ukraine ceding territory, setting up a major barrier for President Donald Trump’s peace summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
Hopes of a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine are high in Washington, D.C., with Trump announcing on Friday that he would be meeting Putin on U.S. soil to discuss a lasting peace to end fighting over Ukraine.
Earlier in the day, Trump said that a peace deal could involve the swapping of territories between Russia and Ukraine, a stipulation that Zelensky said was a non-starter in a Saturday video address. His statement took on a much more stern tone with the United States than in previous weeks.
“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. They will not achieve anything. These are stillborn decisions. They are unworkable decisions. And we all need real and genuine peace. Peace that people will respect,” Zelensky said.
He appeared to dismiss the Alaska peace talks, saying it was “Very far away from this war, which is raging on our land, against our people, and which anyway can’t be ended without us, without Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian president repeatedly stressed that Ukraine would only accept a “dignified peace,” which he defined as not ceding any territory to Russia.
“The answer to the Ukrainian territorial question already is in the Constitution of Ukraine. No one will deviate from this—and no one will be able to. Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier,” Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian president then flexed his diplomatic support from the European Union, delivering statements about his calls with the leaders of Denmark, the United Kingdom, France, and Estonia, thanking them for their support. His readout of the call with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen elaborated on his objections to Russia’s peace overtures.
“The Russians still refuse to stop the killings, still invest in the war, and still push the idea of ‘exchanging’ Ukrainian territory for Ukrainian territory, with consequences that guarantee nothing except more favorable positions for Russia to resume the war. All our steps must bring us closer to a real end to the war, not its reconfiguration. And our joint decisions with partners must serve our common security,” Zelensky said.
Ukraine has been on the back foot against Russia for over a year and a half, with most hopes of an outright military victory over Moscow largely disappearing following Kyiv’s disastrous summer counteroffensive in the Zaporizhzhia oblast in 2023. While Kyiv had ceased outright saying that the only acceptable end to the war would be the restoration of Ukraine’s 1991 borders, a position it voiced throughout 2022 and 2023, Zelensky’s newest comments appear to show that, despite military defeats, Ukraine hasn’t changed its position.
Russia solidified its annexation of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts in September 2022, and has repeatedly stressed that it considers the areas fully Russian territory and would not accept any peace deal that involves ceding its land.
The irreconcilable differences have sunk all previous attempts at peace talks, and could very well sink any breakthroughs made in Alaska on Friday.
A U.S. official briefed on the negotiations around the peace talks in Alaska, speaking with the Washington Post, said that Russia initially proposed meeting in the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia, to which the U.S. countered with Europe instead. After the Kremlin rejected this, the two settled on Alaska.
The exact details of Russia’s latest peace proposal are murky. A report from the Wall Street Journal, based on talks with European and Ukrainian officials, said Moscow offered to halt fighting if Ukrainian forces completely withdrew from Donetsk Oblast, which would then be followed by a lasting peace deal. Analysts argued the deal would be a nonstarter even before Zelensky’s public denunciation of any territorial concessions. Donetsk is the location of Ukraine’s most heavily fortified positions, leaving it more vulnerable if the ceasefire breaks down.
Kyiv’s supporters immediately began comparing the suggestion to the infamous 1938 Munich Conference, when France and the British Empire ceded the German-majority Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany in exchange for a commitment that it wouldn’t take more territory in the future. The ceding of the country’s most defensible positions left it vulnerable when Berlin dismembered the rest of the country months later.
The anonymous U.S. official speaking with the Washington Post said that Putin was acting “like Hitler who received some lands and wanted more.”
Friday’s planned meeting in Alaska will be Putin’s first visit to the U.S. since 2015. Trump and Putin last met in person in Osaka, Japan, in 2019 on the sidelines of the G20 summit. Putin last met with a U.S. president when he sat down with former President Joe Biden in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2021.
Direct communication between Moscow and Washington was cut off following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which saw Biden rally behind Ukraine. Trump opened up direct dialogue with Putin shortly after beginning his second term in an effort to serve as a neutral mediator, but a face-to-face meeting on U.S. soil is another major step.
TRUMP ANNOUNCES MEETING WITH PUTIN TO TAKE PLACE IN ALASKA
The sudden turnaround came after months of deteriorating relations between Washington and Moscow, with Trump growing frustrated by Russia’s continued offensive in Donetsk and constant missile and drone attacks throughout Ukraine. Trump had softened his position on Kyiv over the past few weeks, committing to more military aid for Ukraine.
Despite Ukraine’s stalwart defense, Russia has gained the upper hand on nearly every front, slowly grinding away the Ukrainian armed forces while hopes of a Russian economic collapse remain elusive.