US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a summit in Alaska next Friday to address the crisis in Ukraine.
The meeting was announced by Trump on Twitter on 15 August, who confirmed it later through a Kremlin spokesperson who called Alaska a "quite logical" destination for the summit because of its geographical proximity to Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated that any settlement must include Ukraine itself, expressing his willingness to work with all partners toward a "lasting peace."
The statement came soon after Trump indicated that Ukraine may have to surrender territory to end the war, which started after Russia mounted a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Speaking at the White House on Friday, Trump said, “You’re looking at territory that’s been fought over for three and a half years, a lot of Russians have died. A lot of Ukrainians have died. It’s very complicated. We’re going to get some back, we’re going to get some switched. There will be some swapping of territories, to the betterment of both.”
He would not elaborate on what such a proposal would look like.
But as reported by CBS News—drawing on sources close to the story—the White House is working to convince the European leaders to approve a deal where Russia would keep control over all of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and Crimea, but give up on the partially occupied regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Earlier in the day on Friday, the Wall Street Journal cited a report that Putin offered Trump's representative Steve Witkoff a similar deal in a recent Moscow meeting.
It is not clear if Ukraine and its allies would agree to such a set of conditions, as Zelensky and Putin still have deeply different opinions regarding the terms of peace.
Zelensky has repeatedly dismissed any call for territorial compromise.
In a Telegram statement issued Saturday, Zelensky reiterated: "The solution to the Ukrainian territorial question is already in the Constitution of Ukraine. Nobody will and cannot go away from this. Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier."
He also stated, "Any solutions contrary to us, any solutions without Ukraine, are simultaneously solutions contrary to peace," and was ready for "real solutions" to establish peace.
"We are prepared, alongside President Trump, alongside all partners, to labor for a real, and above all, sustainable peace — a peace that will not be destroyed at the whim of Moscow.
A senior White House aide reported to CBS that planning for the meeting next Friday is still fluid, and it is possible that Zelensky may take part in some manner.
Even though Moscow has been unable to secure decisive gains in the invasion, it now occupies about 20% of Ukraine. Ukrainian counterattacks have not been able to push Russian troops out.
Earlier direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul have also not moved the peace process forward, as Kyiv and the West regard Moscow's political and military conditions as a form of surrender.
Russia has made demands on Ukraine to adopt neutrality, sharply cut down its military strength, drop NATO ambitions, and Western sanctions on Russia to be lifted.
Moscow further demands Kyiv pull its troops out of the four partially occupied eastern Ukrainian regions and demobilize its military.
However, Trump continued on Friday to assert a trilateral peace deal is still possible.
"European leaders want to see peace, President Putin, I believe, wants to see peace, and Zelensky wants to see peace," he said to reporters.
President Zelensky needs to get all of his, everything that he needs, because he's going to have to prepare to sign something and I think he's working hard to accomplish that," Trump stated.
Trump previously informed the BBC that on four different occasions he had thought a war-ending deal was imminent, going on to say, "I'm disappointed in him [Putin], but I'm not finished with him.
While he recently set a stronger line on Russia—giving 8 August as the deadline for a ceasefire or facing severe sanctions—no new sanctions were put in place as the deadline approached.
Focus turned instead to the meeting of Trump and Putin, which is an opportunity to discuss a possible peace deal.
The two last had a phone conversation in February, their first direct call since Russia's invasion started.
The last face-to-face encounter of a US president with Putin was in 2021, when then-President Joe Biden met with him in Geneva, Switzerland.
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