Kyiv: Even as hectic preparations are underway for Friday’s meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed not to give up eastern Ukrainian land to Russia, saying that abandoning the Donbas region would open the door for Putin to “start a third war” in Ukraine.
Zelensky’s issued a warning on Tuesday ahead of Putin’s meeting with Trump in Alaska, where the Russian president is expected to demand Ukrainian land as part of a peace deal, reports CNN.
Notwithstanding the confusion over Putin’s reported conditions for a ceasefire, most versions stress that the Russian president will demand that Ukrainian forces withdraw from all parts of Ukraine’s Donbas, which includes parts of the Donetsk region it still holds.
“For the Russians, Donbas is a springboard for a future new offensive. If we leave Donbas of our own accord or under pressure, we will start a third war,” Zelensky told reporters.
Notably, Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014, and went on to launch its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“I am not going to surrender my country because I have no right to do so. If we leave Donbas today, our fortifications, our terrain, the heights we control, we will clearly open a bridgehead for the preparation of a Russian offensive,” he cautioned.
Zelensky and Ukrainian military officials have warned that Russia is building up troops for a new offensive, ready to launch by September.
“I haven’t heard anything — not a single proposal that would guarantee that a new war won’t start tomorrow and that Putin won’t try to occupy at least Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv,” the Ukrainian president told reporters.
“The exchange of territories is a very complex issue that cannot be separated from security guarantees for Ukraine, for our sovereign state and our people,” Zelensky asserted while calling for the European Union’s involvement in peace talks.
He explained that the EU’s involvement in peace talks is also crucial because “no one except Europe is giving us security guarantees.”
A conversation between the US, Ukraine and “all of Europe” will take place on Wednesday, according to the Ukrainian president.
Although the US president has signalled Zelensky would not participate in Friday’s summit, Trump’s ultimate goal is to get Putin and Zelensky in the same room to hash out their differences, and surmised only they would be able to find a way to end the war with some “land swapping” between them.
“I’m not going to make a deal. It’s not up to me to make a deal. I think a deal should be made for both,” Trump added.
Meanwhile, the White House on Tuesday characterized the upcoming meeting between Trump and Putin in Anchorage as a “listening exercise”.
