Zelenskyy rejects formally ceding Ukrainian territory, says Kyiv must be part of any negotiations

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Saturday the planned summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, warning that any peace deal excluding Kyiv would lead to “dead solutions.”

The meeting, scheduled for Friday in Alaska, is seen as a potential breakthrough after weeks of expressing frustration that more was not being done to quell the fighting.

In a statement posted to Telegram, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s territorial integrity, enshrined in the constitution, must be non-negotiable and emphasized that lasting peace must include Ukraine’s voice at the table.


Zelenskyy said Ukraine “will not give Russia any awards for what it has done” and that “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 have previously privately told the Associated Press that Kyiv would be amenable to a peace deal that would de facto recognise Ukraine’s inability to regain lost territories militarily.

Trump said Friday he will meet with Putin next Friday in Alaska to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, a potential breakthrough after weeks of expressing frustration that more was not being done to quell the fighting.

“It seems entirely logical for our delegation to simply fly across the Bering Strait, and for such an important and anticipated summit of the leaders of the two countries to be held in Alaska,” Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.