International Desk

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has issued a stark warning to the international community ahead of next week’s planned summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, cautioning that any agreements reached without Ukraine’s participation would undermine prospects for peace.

Speaking on August 9, Zelensky reiterated that Ukraine would not agree to surrender any of its territory to Russia in exchange for ending the war. “Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier,” he declared in a statement posted on social media. “Any decisions against us, any decisions without Ukraine, are also decisions against peace. They will achieve nothing.”

The warning comes as Trump and Putin prepare to meet in Alaska on August 15 to discuss potential steps toward ending the war in Ukraine. The summit will mark the first in-person meeting between a sitting US president and the Russian leader since Joe Biden and Putin held talks in Geneva in June 2021. It will also be Trump’s first face-to-face engagement with Putin since 2019, when the two leaders met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan.

Announcing the upcoming meeting on August 8, Trump suggested that “there’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both” Ukraine and Russia—remarks that have raised concerns in Kyiv about the possibility of a deal being struck without Ukrainian consent. The former US president, who returned to office earlier this year, offered no further details about what such territorial adjustments might entail.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives and forced millions from their homes. Three rounds of direct negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow in 2025 have failed to produce tangible progress. Russia has continued to resist calls from Ukraine, the United States, and European nations for a ceasefire, while Putin has ruled out meeting Zelensky in person at this stage.

For his part, Zelensky has stressed that direct dialogue between him and Putin is essential to achieving a lasting settlement. While he said Ukraine is “ready for real decisions that can bring peace,” he emphasized that such peace must be “dignified” and not come at the expense of Ukraine’s sovereignty or territorial integrity.

Whether the Alaska summit will produce a breakthrough remains unclear. Analysts note that without Ukraine’s involvement in the talks, any agreement reached between Washington and Moscow is unlikely to address the core issues fueling the war—risking, as Zelensky warned, a deal that could bring neither true peace nor lasting stability to the region.