President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has insisted that “Ukrainians will not give their land to occupiers” after Donald Trump said any end to the war with Russia must involve “some swapping of territories”.
Speaking early on Saturday, the Ukrainian leader said Kyiv was ready for genuine solutions to bring peace, but stressed that no settlement could be reached without Ukraine’s involvement. “Any decisions against us, any decisions without Ukraine, are also decisions against peace. They will achieve nothing,” Zelenskyy said. “The war cannot be ended without us, without Ukraine.”
Trump announced he would meet Russian president Vladimir Putin next Friday in Alaska, in what would be the first US–Russia summit since 2021. The Kremlin confirmed the date and location through aide Yury Ushakov.
The US president told reporters the meeting “would have been sooner” but was delayed due to security arrangements. He added that “there’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both” Ukraine and Russia, without providing further details.
Bloomberg reported that the proposed deal could formalise some of Putin’s territorial gains, effectively freezing battle lines in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. While Putin claims four Ukrainian regions in their entirety, significant areas remain under Ukrainian control. According to the report, US and Russian officials have discussed a plan under which Russia would halt its offensive in exchange for territorial concessions, a politically contentious proposal in Ukraine.
Donald Trump speaks with Zelenskyy
P³olish prime minister Donald Tusk, after speaking with Zelenskyy, said there were signs that a “freeze” in the conflict might be approaching. “There are certain signals, and we also have an intuition, that perhaps a freeze in the conflict … is closer than it is further away,” Tusk said, adding that Zelenskyy was “very cautious but optimistic” about the possibility of a ceasefire.
Ukraine is reportedly keen for Poland and other European nations to participate in ceasefire planning and any eventual peace settlement. Trump has previously signalled his willingness to meet Putin without preconditions, raising fears that Ukraine could be excluded from talks.
The Kremlin rejected a proposal from US envoy Steve Witkoff for a three-way summit involving Trump, Putin and Zelenskyy, saying preparations were focused on a bilateral meeting with Trump. Putin has said he is not ready to meet Zelenskyy, claiming that “certain conditions” would need to be met first.
Last month, Trump gave Putin an ultimatum to agree to a ceasefire or face new secondary sanctions, with the deadline set for this Friday. Despite the planned summit, the deadline appeared to remain in place.
In a separate move this week, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on Indian imports of Russian oil, criticising New Delhi for enabling Moscow’s war effort, a move India called unfair and selective.
Trump has grown increasingly critical of Putin in recent months, expressing frustration over continued Russian missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities. “Putin … talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the evening,” Trump said last month. “So there’s a little bit of a problem there.”
