Territorial Deal on Table as Trump, Putin Plan High-Stakes Alaska Meeting

U.S. President Donald Trump said he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 15 in Alaska to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, suggesting a potential agreement that could involve some exchange of land, according to Reuters news agency.

Trump made the highly anticipated announcement after he said that the parties, including Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, were close to a ceasefire deal that could resolve the three-and-a-half-year conflict, one that could require Ukraine to surrender significant territory.

“There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both,” the Republican president said.

However, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Ukraine could not violate its constitution on the territorial issues, adding that “Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupiers.”

The Kremlin confirmed the summit in an online statement.

The two leaders will “focus on discussing options for achieving a long-term peaceful resolution to the Ukrainian crisis,” Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said.

“This will evidently be a challenging process, but we will engage in it actively and energetically,” Ushakov said.

In a video address to the nation posted on his Telegram channel on Saturday, Zelenskiy said that any decisions without Ukraine would be decisions against peace.

“They will not achieve anything. These are stillborn decisions. They are unworkable decisions. And we all need real and genuine peace,” Zelenskiy said.

According to Reuters, Ukraine has previously signalled a willingness to be flexible in the search for an end to a war, but accepting the loss of around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory would be painful and politically challenging for Zelenskiy and his government.