Desk Report,
Zelensky says Trump-Putin meeting will achieve nothing
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet directly. The meeting will be held in the US state of Alaska on August 15. There, the top leaders will discuss ending the Russia-Ukraine war. Donald Trump himself confirmed the meeting on Friday.
Zelensky says Trump-Putin meeting will achieve nothing
Russia and Ukraine have been at war since February 2022. The United States and its European allies have provided Ukraine with a large amount of weapons in this war. However, Trump took action to stop the war in Ukraine only after taking office in January. He recently said that Moscow and Kiev are very close to a ceasefire agreement. Later on Friday, Trump told reporters at the White House about the meeting with Putin. He also said, “Some territories may be exchanged for the good of both sides.” Currently, large parts of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine are under the control of Russian forces. Putin has always said that Ukraine must give up its claims to these territories for a ceasefire agreement.
The Kremlin also confirmed the meeting with Trump in a statement. In the statement, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that Putin and Trump will emphasize discussing alternative ways to resolve the Ukraine crisis in the long term. This is certainly a challenging process. However, the two sides will discuss this actively and with interest.
Earlier, a report by the US media Bloomberg also mentioned the condition for Ukraine to cede its territory. The report said that US and Russian officials were working on such conditions to stop the war. At that time, a White House official dismissed the matter as ‘speculation’. The Kremlin did not comment on the report to Reuters.
Zelensky’s strong objection
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has strongly criticized Trump’s statement to reporters about ‘swapping some territories’. In a regular video briefing to the nation on Saturday, he said that Ukraine would not take any action in violation of the constitution on its territory. Ukrainians will not give their territory to the ‘occupiers’ as a ‘gift’.
Zelensky has rejected the idea of Russia giving up its claims to occupied territories since the beginning of the ceasefire talks. Yesterday, he said about the Trump-Putin meeting, ‘They will not gain anything from this. These decisions are like becoming ineffective immediately after being made. They will not serve any purpose. We all need a real, realistic peace.’
The war against Russia has suffered huge losses, although Kiev had previously indicated some flexibility regarding the ceasefire agreement. However, if Russia really has to give up the four territories occupied by Russia in the ongoing war and Crimea, which it seized in 2014, it will be a big challenge for Zelensky and his government. These territories make up about 20 percent of Ukraine’s total territory.
Tyson Barker, a researcher at the Atlantic Council, a US-based research organization, believes that Ukrainians will reject the idea of giving up their territory. “What Ukrainians can do is stand firm on their objections to the territorial concessions, while at the same time insisting on their own terms for a negotiated solution involving all parties,” he told Reuters. “They should also express their gratitude to the United States for its assistance.”
