Hours before the Alaska Summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected the idea of giving up land to end the war.
What did Zelenskyy say ahead of the high-stakes talks?
Zelenskyy said Ukraine “will not give land to the occupier.” His comments suggested that Putin’s proposal to stop the war could involve major territorial concessions by Kyiv. Zelenskyy warned that giving up the eastern Donbas region would only open the door for Putin to “start a third war” in the future.
According to reports, Russia controls about 18.4% of Ukraine’s territory, which includes Crimea, that Moscow annexed in 2014, and parts of the Donbas region seized by Russian-backed separatists the same year. In 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion, capturing large areas in the north, though Ukrainian forces have since reclaimed much of that land.
The Alaska meeting between Trump and Putin is scheduled for Friday, August 15. The talks are expected to focus on ending the conflict in Ukraine. A Kremlin government plane carrying Putin and top Russian officials landed in Anchorage on Thursday morning.
Trump-Putin meeting
American officials have confirmed that the upcoming meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will take place at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15, according to reports. This will be the first in-person meeting between the two leaders in more than four years.
White House officials say the August 15 meeting will be more of a “listening session” than a formal negotiation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have been handling logistics, but Trump has said he wants to “look at [Putin] across the table” to gauge his intentions directly.
ALSO READ: Will Arms Control Help Rebuild US-Russia Ties? Know What Russian President Vladimir Putin Said
Shivam Verma is a journalist with over three years of experience in digital newsrooms. He currently works at NewsX, having previously worked for Firstpost and DNA India. A postgraduate diploma holder in Integrated Journalism from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, Shivam focuses on international affairs, diplomacy, defence, and politics. Beyond the newsroom, he is passionate about football—both playing and watching—and enjoys travelling to explore new places and cuisines.
