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

The Trump-Putin meeting, scheduled for Friday in Alaska, is seen as a potential breakthrough

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

The Trump-Putin meeting, scheduled for Friday in Alaska, is seen as a potential breakthrough

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Updated: 3:55 AM CDT Aug 9, 2025
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Zelenskyy rejects formally ceding Ukrainian territory, says Kyiv must be part of negotiations

The Trump-Putin meeting, scheduled for Friday in Alaska, is seen as a potential breakthrough

AP logo
Updated: 3:55 AM CDT Aug 9, 2025
Editorial Standards
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 Trump-Putin meeting, scheduled for Friday in Alaska, is seen as a potential breakthrough.See the story of the meeting in the video aboveTrump had previously agreed to meet with Putin even if the Russian leader would not meet with Zelenskyy, stoking fears Ukraine could be sidelined in efforts to stop the continent's biggest conflict since World War II.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 had previously told the Associated Press privately that Kyiv would be amenable to a peace deal that would de facto recognize Ukraine's inability to regain lost territories militarily.The summitTrump said he will meet with Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine."It seems entirely logical for our delegation to fly across the Bering Strait simply, 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 Saturday in a statement posted to the Kremlin's news channel.Such a summit may prove pivotal in a war that began more than three years ago when Russia invaded its western neighbor and has led to tens of thousands of deaths, although there's no guarantee it will stop the fighting since Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on their conditions for peace.In comments to reporters at the White House before his post confirming the date and place, Trump suggested that any agreement would likely involve "some swapping of territories," but he gave no details. Analysts, including some close to the Kremlin, have suggested that Russia could offer to give up territory it controls outside of the four regions it claims to have annexed.Trump said his meeting with Putin would come before any sit-down discussion involving Zelenskyy. His announcement that he planned to host one of America's adversaries on U.S. soil broke with expectations that they'd meet in a third country. The gesture gives Putin validation after the U.S. and its allies had long sought to make him a pariah over his war against Ukraine.Ultimatums and sanctionsExasperated that Putin did not heed his calls to stop bombing Ukrainian cities, Trump, almost two weeks ago, moved up his ultimatum to impose additional sanctions on Russia and introduce secondary tariffs targeting countries that buy Russian oil if the Kremlin did not move toward a settlement.The deadline was Friday. But the White House did not answer questions that evening about the state of possible sanctions after Trump announced an upcoming meeting with Putin.Prior to Trump announcing the meeting with Putin, his efforts to pressure Russia into stopping the fighting had delivered no progress. The Kremlin's bigger army is slowly advancing deeper into Ukraine at great cost in troops and armor while it relentlessly bombards Ukrainian cities. Russia and Ukraine are far apart on their terms for peace. Previous reporting below:President Donald Trump said Friday that he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next Friday in Alaska to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, a potential major milestone after expressing weeks of frustration that more was not being done to quell the fighting.Speaking to reporters at the White House after announcing a framework aimed at ending decades of conflict elsewhere in the world — between Armenia and Azerbaijan — Trump refused to say exactly when or where he would meet with Putin, but that he planned to announce a location soon. Later on social media, he announced what he called “the highly anticipated meeting” would happen Aug. 15 in Alaska. He said more details would follow. The Kremlin has not yet confirmed the details.He suggested earlier Friday that his meeting with the Russian leader could come before any sit-down discussion involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.“We’re going to have a meeting with Russia, start off with Russia. And we’ll announce a location. I think the location will be a very popular one,” Trump said.He added: “It would have been sooner, but I guess there’s security arrangements that unfortunately people have to make. Otherwise I’d do it much quicker. He would, too. He’d like to meet as soon as possible. I agree with it. But we'll be announcing that very shortly."If it happens, the meeting would be the first U.S.-Russia summit since 2021, when former President Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva. It could mean a breakthrough in Trump’s effort to end the war, although there’s no guarantee it would stop the fighting since Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on their conditions for peace.Still, Trump said, “President Putin, I believe, wants to see peace, and Zelenskyy wants to see peace." He said that, “In all fairness to President Zelenskyy, he’s getting everything he needs to, assuming we get something done.”Trump also said that a peace deal would likely mean “there will be some swapping of territories” between Ukraine and Russia but didn't provide further details.Trump said of territory generally “we’re looking to get some back and some swapping. It’s complicated.”“Nothing easy," the president said. “But we’re gonna get some back. We’re gonna get some switched. There’ll be some swapping of territories, to the betterment of both.”Analysts, including some close to the Kremlin, have suggested that Russia could offer to give up territory it controls outside of the four regions it claims to have annexed.Pressed on if this was the last chance to make a major peace deal, Trump said, “I don’t like using the term last chance,” and said that, “When those guns start going off, it’s awfully tough to get ’em to stop.”Exasperated that Putin did not heed his calls to stop bombing Ukrainian cities, Trump almost two weeks ago moved up his ultimatum to impose additional sanctions on Russia and introduce secondary tariffs targeting countries that buy Russian oil if the Kremlin did not move toward a settlement. The deadline was Friday.Prior to his announcing the meeting with Putin, Trump’s efforts to pressure Russia into stopping the fighting have so far delivered no progress. The Kremlin's bigger army is slowly advancing deeper into Ukraine at great cost in troops and armor while it relentlessly bombards Ukrainian cities. Russia and Ukraine are far apart on their terms for peace.Ukrainian troops say they are ready to keep fightingUkrainian forces are locked in intense battles along the 620-mile front line that snakes from northeast to southeast Ukraine. The Pokrovsk area of the eastern Donetsk region is taking the brunt of punishment as Russia seeks to break out into the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region. Ukraine has significant manpower shortages.Intense fighting is also taking place in Ukraine's northern Sumy border region, where Ukrainian forces are engaging Russian soldiers to prevent reinforcements being sent from there to Donetsk.In the Pokrovsk area of Donetsk, a commander said he believes Moscow isn’t interested in peace.“It is impossible to negotiate with them. The only option is to defeat them,” Buda, a commander of a drone unit in the Spartan Brigade, told The Associated Press. He used only his call sign, in keeping with the rules of the Ukrainian military.“I would like them to agree and for all this to stop, but Russia will not agree to that. It does not want to negotiate. So the only option is to defeat them,” he said.In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, a howitzer commander using the call sign Warsaw, said troops are determined to thwart Russia’s invasion.“We are on our land, we have no way out,” he said. “So we stand our ground, we have no choice.”Putin makes a flurry of phone callsThe Kremlin said Friday that Putin had a phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, during which the Russian leader informed Xi about the results of his meeting earlier this week with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff. Kremlin officials said Xi “expressed support for the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis on a long-term basis.”Putin is due to visit China next month. China, along with North Korea and Iran, have provided military support for Russia’s war effort, the U.S. says.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X that he also had a call with Putin to speak about the latest Ukraine developments. Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to place an additional 25% tariff on India for its purchases of Russian oil, which the American president says is helping to finance Russia’s war.Putin’s calls followed his phone conversations with the leaders of South Africa, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Belarus, the Kremlin said.The calls suggested to at least one analyst that Putin perhaps wanted to brief Russia’s most important allies about a potential settlement that could be reached at a summit with Trump.“It means that some sort of real peace agreement has been reached for the first time,” said Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin Moscow-based analyst.Analysts say Putin is aiming to outlast the WestTrump's Friday comments came after he said he would meet with Putin even if the Russian leader will not meet with Zelenskyy. That stoked fears in Europe that Ukraine could be sidelined in efforts to stop the continent’s biggest conflict since World War II.Putin said in a previous statement that he hoped to meet with Trump as early as next week, possibly in the United Arab Emirates.The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said in an assessment Thursday that “Putin remains uninterested in ending his war and is attempting to extract bilateral concessions from the United States without meaningfully engaging in a peace process.”“Putin continues to believe that time is on Russia’s side and that Russia can outlast Ukraine and the West,” it said.

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 Trump-Putin meeting, scheduled for Friday in Alaska, is seen as a potential breakthrough.

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See the story of the meeting in the video above

Trump had previously agreed to meet with Putin even if the Russian leader would not meet with Zelenskyy, stoking fears Ukraine could be sidelined in efforts to stop the continent's biggest conflict since World War II.

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."

ROME, ITALY - JULY 10: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (not in picture) hold a joint press conference during the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2025 (URC2025) at Roma Convention Center La Nuvola, on July 10, 2025 in Rome, Italy. The fourth annual Ukraine Recovery Conference is taking place in Rome on July 10-11, bringing together governments and organizations from the international community committed to the long-term reconstruction of Ukraine, amid Russia&apos&#x3B;s full-scale invasion. (Photo by Antonio Masiello/Getty Images)
Antonio Masiello
ROME, ITALY - JULY 10: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (not in picture) hold a joint press conference during the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2025 (URC2025) at Roma Convention Center La Nuvola, on July 10, 2025, in Rome, Italy.

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 had previously told the Associated Press privately that Kyiv would be amenable to a peace deal that would de facto recognize Ukraine's inability to regain lost territories militarily.

The summit

Trump said he will meet with Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

"It seems entirely logical for our delegation to fly across the Bering Strait simply, 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 Saturday in a statement posted to the Kremlin's news channel.

Such a summit may prove pivotal in a war that began more than three years ago when Russia invaded its western neighbor and has led to tens of thousands of deaths, although there's no guarantee it will stop the fighting since Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on their conditions for peace.

In comments to reporters at the White House before his post confirming the date and place, Trump suggested that any agreement would likely involve "some swapping of territories," but he gave no details. Analysts, including some close to the Kremlin, have suggested that Russia could offer to give up territory it controls outside of the four regions it claims to have annexed.

Trump said his meeting with Putin would come before any sit-down discussion involving Zelenskyy. His announcement that he planned to host one of America's adversaries on U.S. soil broke with expectations that they'd meet in a third country. The gesture gives Putin validation after the U.S. and its allies had long sought to make him a pariah over his war against Ukraine.

Ultimatums and sanctions

Exasperated that Putin did not heed his calls to stop bombing Ukrainian cities, Trump, almost two weeks ago, moved up his ultimatum to impose additional sanctions on Russia and introduce secondary tariffs targeting countries that buy Russian oil if the Kremlin did not move toward a settlement.

The deadline was Friday. But the White House did not answer questions that evening about the state of possible sanctions after Trump announced an upcoming meeting with Putin.

Prior to Trump announcing the meeting with Putin, his efforts to pressure Russia into stopping the fighting had delivered no progress. The Kremlin's bigger army is slowly advancing deeper into Ukraine at great cost in troops and armor while it relentlessly bombards Ukrainian cities. Russia and Ukraine are far apart on their terms for peace.


Previous reporting below:

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

Speaking to reporters at the White House after announcing a framework aimed at ending decades of conflict elsewhere in the world — between Armenia and Azerbaijan — Trump refused to say exactly when or where he would meet with Putin, but that he planned to announce a location soon. Later on social media, he announced what he called “the highly anticipated meeting” would happen Aug. 15 in Alaska. He said more details would follow. The Kremlin has not yet confirmed the details.

He suggested earlier Friday that his meeting with the Russian leader could come before any sit-down discussion involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“We’re going to have a meeting with Russia, start off with Russia. And we’ll announce a location. I think the location will be a very popular one,” Trump said.

He added: “It would have been sooner, but I guess there’s security arrangements that unfortunately people have to make. Otherwise I’d do it much quicker. He would, too. He’d like to meet as soon as possible. I agree with it. But we'll be announcing that very shortly."

If it happens, the meeting would be the first U.S.-Russia summit since 2021, when former President Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva. It could mean a breakthrough in Trump’s effort to end the war, although there’s no guarantee it would stop the fighting since Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on their conditions for peace.

Still, Trump said, “President Putin, I believe, wants to see peace, and Zelenskyy wants to see peace." He said that, “In all fairness to President Zelenskyy, he’s getting everything he needs to, assuming we get something done.”

Trump also said that a peace deal would likely mean “there will be some swapping of territories” between Ukraine and Russia but didn't provide further details.

Trump said of territory generally “we’re looking to get some back and some swapping. It’s complicated.”

“Nothing easy," the president said. “But we’re gonna get some back. We’re gonna get some switched. There’ll be some swapping of territories, to the betterment of both.”

Analysts, including some close to the Kremlin, have suggested that Russia could offer to give up territory it controls outside of the four regions it claims to have annexed.

Pressed on if this was the last chance to make a major peace deal, Trump said, “I don’t like using the term last chance,” and said that, “When those guns start going off, it’s awfully tough to get ’em to stop.”

Exasperated that Putin did not heed his calls to stop bombing Ukrainian cities, Trump almost two weeks ago moved up his ultimatum to impose additional sanctions on Russia and introduce secondary tariffs targeting countries that buy Russian oil if the Kremlin did not move toward a settlement. The deadline was Friday.

Prior to his announcing the meeting with Putin, Trump’s efforts to pressure Russia into stopping the fighting have so far delivered no progress. The Kremlin's bigger army is slowly advancing deeper into Ukraine at great cost in troops and armor while it relentlessly bombards Ukrainian cities. Russia and Ukraine are far apart on their terms for peace.

Ukrainian troops say they are ready to keep fighting

Ukrainian forces are locked in intense battles along the 620-mile front line that snakes from northeast to southeast Ukraine. The Pokrovsk area of the eastern Donetsk region is taking the brunt of punishment as Russia seeks to break out into the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region. Ukraine has significant manpower shortages.

Intense fighting is also taking place in Ukraine's northern Sumy border region, where Ukrainian forces are engaging Russian soldiers to prevent reinforcements being sent from there to Donetsk.

In the Pokrovsk area of Donetsk, a commander said he believes Moscow isn’t interested in peace.

“It is impossible to negotiate with them. The only option is to defeat them,” Buda, a commander of a drone unit in the Spartan Brigade, told The Associated Press. He used only his call sign, in keeping with the rules of the Ukrainian military.

“I would like them to agree and for all this to stop, but Russia will not agree to that. It does not want to negotiate. So the only option is to defeat them,” he said.

In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, a howitzer commander using the call sign Warsaw, said troops are determined to thwart Russia’s invasion.

“We are on our land, we have no way out,” he said. “So we stand our ground, we have no choice.”

Putin makes a flurry of phone calls

The Kremlin said Friday that Putin had a phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, during which the Russian leader informed Xi about the results of his meeting earlier this week with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff. Kremlin officials said Xi “expressed support for the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis on a long-term basis.”

Putin is due to visit China next month. China, along with North Korea and Iran, have provided military support for Russia’s war effort, the U.S. says.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X that he also had a call with Putin to speak about the latest Ukraine developments. Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to place an additional 25% tariff on India for its purchases of Russian oil, which the American president says is helping to finance Russia’s war.

Putin’s calls followed his phone conversations with the leaders of South Africa, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Belarus, the Kremlin said.

The calls suggested to at least one analyst that Putin perhaps wanted to brief Russia’s most important allies about a potential settlement that could be reached at a summit with Trump.

“It means that some sort of real peace agreement has been reached for the first time,” said Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin Moscow-based analyst.

Analysts say Putin is aiming to outlast the West

Trump's Friday comments came after he said he would meet with Putin even if the Russian leader will not meet with Zelenskyy. That stoked fears in Europe that Ukraine could be sidelined in efforts to stop the continent’s biggest conflict since World War II.

Putin said in a previous statement that he hoped to meet with Trump as early as next week, possibly in the United Arab Emirates.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said in an assessment Thursday that “Putin remains uninterested in ending his war and is attempting to extract bilateral concessions from the United States without meaningfully engaging in a peace process.”

“Putin continues to believe that time is on Russia’s side and that Russia can outlast Ukraine and the West,” it said.