Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stressed that Ukraine will never cede its territories, rejecting American suggestions that the deal with Russia shall include some swapping of territories between the two countries. "Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier," Zelenskyy said in a video address on Saturday. He added that Ukraine's borders are firmly established in the country's constitution and no one will deviate from that, nor can anyone do so.
According to Qatar News Agency, on Friday, US President Donald Trump announced that he would meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15, saying that both sides, including Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, are close to reaching an agreement that could resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The declaration of the specifics of the potential deal was stopped short, but Trump said that the deal will include some land swaps that serve the interests of both sides.
Noteworthy, the Alaska summit would be the first of its kind between a US President and a Russian one since the meeting held between former US President Joe Biden and Putin in Geneva in June 2021. The last meeting between Trump and Putin was in 2019, during the G20 Summit in Japan during President Trump's first term. Putin has not visited the US since 2015, when Barack Obama was President. The Kremlin announced today that it has sent an invitation to President Trump to visit Russia following the Alaska Summit.