Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy defied President Donald Trump on Saturday, declaring his people "will not give their land to occupiers," as a reaction to the latter's proposal that a peace deal could include some land "swapping" with Russia.
Zelenskyy posted early Saturday on Telegram, saying, "The answer to Ukraine's territorial question is already in the constitution of Ukraine. No one will and no one can deviate from it. Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.
This comes after Trump's post on Truth Social announcing a scheduled meeting between him and Russian President Vladimir Putin on next Friday in Alaska. The details and arrangements of the meeting, however, are unclear, including if Zelenskyy will attend. Interestingly, Trump's announcement did not mention the president of Ukraine.
Later on Friday at the White House, Trump hinted that discussions had taken place regarding Russia and Ukraine possibly “swapping” territories as part of a ceasefire deal. “There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both and. we’ll be talking about that either later or tomorrow, or whatever,” he said.
A White House spokesperson said that Russia had put forward a list of demands for a possible ceasefire, and the US was trying to get consensus from Ukraine and its allies in Europe.
In his Saturday statement, Zelenskyy clarified that any decisions that were taken without Ukraine's consent would be "decisions against peace," and concluded, "They will not achieve anything."
Up to early Saturday, the White House had yet to reply to Zelenskyy's comments.
Russia's ultimata have already called for Ukraine to yield all the territory that Putin says he has annexed and to become permanently neutral, which would prevent Ukraine from ever becoming a member of NATO.
Putin's demands include Ukrainian control of four regions—Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson—as well as the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia took in 2014. Russian forces do not control all the parts of these territories, though.
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