Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country won’t cede the eastern region of Donbas to Russia amid talks of a “land swap”, as US President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin meet in Alaska on Friday in a bid to end the war.
Zelensky pushed for Ukraine to be included in the talks, to which he ahs not been invited.
“For Russians, Donbas is a bridgehead for a future new offensive. Any territorial issues cannot be separated from security guarantees,” Zelensky told reporters on Tuesday in Kyiv.
“I don’t know what will be discussed without us, they probably have a bilateral track. The Ukrainian issue must be discussed by three sides at least,” Zelenskiy said on the Alaska Summit.
The Ukrainian leader’s comments come after Donald Trump said he was working to get some territory back for Ukraine, days after he also mentioned swapping of terriroty between Kyiv and Moscow.
What Donald Trump said about getting territory back for Ukraine from Russia
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Trump shared that one of the key agenda points during the talks with Putin would be to get back the Ukrainian territory seized by Russia.
{{/usCountry}}Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Trump shared that one of the key agenda points during the talks with Putin would be to get back the Ukrainian territory seized by Russia.
{{/usCountry}}"Russia has occupied a big portion of Ukraine. They occupied prime territory. We're going to try to get some of that territory back for Ukraine," Trump was quoted as saying at the White House.
Vladimir Putin is demanding that Ukraine give up the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that together form Donbas, as a condition to unlock a ceasefire and enter negotiations over a longer-term peace accord.
But such a decision would require Volodymyr Zelensky to order troops to withdraw from 9,000 square kilometres (3,474 square miles) of Ukrainian territory, handing Moscow a victory that its army couldn’t achieve militarily for more than a decade. That is exactly what he has said that he won’t do.