Ukraine won鈥檛 surrender land to Russia to buy peace, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Saturday, after Washington and Moscow agreed to hold a summit in a bid to end the war.
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will meet in the US state of Alaska on August 15, to try to resolve the three-year conflict, despite warnings from Ukraine and Europe that Kyiv must be part of negotiations.
Announcing the summit on Friday, Trump said that聽 鈥榯here鈥檒l be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both鈥� Ukraine and Russia, without providing further details.
鈥楿krainians will not give their land to the occupier,鈥� Zelensky said on social media hours later.
鈥楢ny decisions against us, any decisions without Ukraine, are also decisions against peace. They will achieve nothing,鈥� he said, adding that the war 鈥榗annot be ended without us, without Ukraine鈥�.
Zelensky also urged Ukraine鈥檚 allies to take 鈥榗lear steps鈥� towards achieving a sustainable peace, during a call with Britain鈥檚 Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
National security advisors from Kyiv鈥檚 allies鈥攊ncluding the United States, EU nations and the UK鈥攚ere gathering in Britain on Saturday to align their views ahead of the Putin-Trump summit.
鈥業t is truly important that the Russians do not succeed in deceiving anyone again,鈥� Zelensky said after a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, without elaborating further.
Three rounds of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine this year have failed to bear fruit, and it remains unclear whether a summit could bring peace any closer as the warring sides鈥� positions are still far apart.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with millions forced to flee their homes.
Putin has resisted multiple calls from the United States, Europe and Kyiv for a ceasefire.
Zelensky said Kyiv was 鈥榬eady for real decisions that can bring peace鈥� but said it should be a 鈥榙ignified peace鈥�, without giving details.
Putin, a former KGB officer in power in Russia for over 25 years, has ruled out holding talks with Zelensky at this stage.
Ukraine鈥檚 leader has been pushing for a three-way summit and has frequently said meeting Putin is the only way to make progress towards peace.
The summit in Alaska, the far-north territory which Russia sold to the United States in 1867, would be the first between sitting US and Russian presidents since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021. This was just nine months before Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.
Zelensky said of the location that it is 鈥榲ery far away from this war, which is raging on our land, against our people鈥�.
The Kremlin said the choice was 鈥榣ogical鈥� because the state close to the Arctic is on the border between the two countries, and this is where their 鈥榚conomic interests intersect鈥�.
Moscow has also invited Trump to pay a reciprocal visit to Russia later.
Trump and Putin last sat together in 2019 at a G20 summit meeting in Japan during Trump鈥檚 first term. They have spoken by telephone several times since January.
On Friday, Putin held a round of calls with allies, including China and India, in a diplomatic flurry ahead of the summit with Trump, who has spent his first months in office trying to broker peace in Ukraine without making a breakthrough.
The US president has earlier imposed an additional tariff on India for buying Russia鈥檚 oil in a bid to nudge Moscow into talks. He also threatened to impose a similar tax on China, but so far has refrained from doing so.
Away from the talks, across a more than 1,000-kilometre frontline, Russia and Ukraine continued pouring dozens of drones onto each other鈥檚 positions in an exchange of attacks in the early hours of Saturday.
As a result of a Russian strike, a bus carrying civilians was hit in Ukraine鈥檚 frontline city of Kherson, killing two people and wounding 16.
The Russian army claimed to have taken Yablonovka, another village in the Donetsk region, place of the most intense fighting in the east, and one of the five regions Putin sees as part of Russia.
Four people were killed as of Saturday morning in Donetsk after Russian shelling, Ukrainian authorities said.
In 2022, the Kremlin announced the annexation four Ukrainian regions鈥擠onetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson鈥攄espite not having full control over them.
Russia had previously annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
As a prerequisite to any peace settlement, Moscow demanded Kyiv to pull its forces out of the regions and commit to being a neutral state, shun Western military support and be excluded from joining NATO.
Kyiv said it will never recognise Russian control over its sovereign territory, though it acknowledged securing the return of land captured by Russia would have to come through diplomacy, not on the battlefield.
