Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy ahead of talks with US President Donald Trump yesterday said that Russia should not be “rewarded” for its invasion, after the US leader pressed Ukraine to make concessions in exchange for peace.
The talks, in which European leaders are also to take part, follows a summit on Friday last week between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska that failed to produce a ceasefire in the nearly three-and-a-half-year war.
Trump, who dropped his insistence on a ceasefire in favor of a final peace deal after meeting Putin, on Sunday said that Zelenskiy could end the war “almost immediately if he wants to,” but that, for Ukraine, there was “no getting back” Crimea and no joining NATO.
Photo: Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Kharkiv region via Reuters
Kyiv and European leaders have warned against making political and territorial concessions to Russia, whose assault on Ukraine since February 2022 has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.
“Russia should not be rewarded for its participation in this war ... and it is Moscow that must hear the word: Stop,” Zelenskiy said on social media yesterday.
Trump and Zelenskiy are expected to meet one-on-one before being joined by the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Finland, as well as NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the White House said.
The European leaders would also hold a preparatory meeting with Zelenskiy ahead of the talks with Trump, the EU said.
Ahead of yesterday’s meeting, China called for “all parties” to agree to peace “as soon as possible.”
It will be the first visit by Zelenskiy to Washington since a February bust-up with Trump and US Vice President J.D. Vance, when the two men berated the Ukrainian leader for being “ungrateful.”
Russia kept up its attacks on Ukraine ahead of the new talks, firing at least 140 drones and four ballistic missiles at the nation between late Sunday and early yesterday, the Ukrainian air force said.
A Russian drone attack on a five-story apartment block in Kharkiv just before dawn killed at least seven people, including a one-and-a-half-year-old girl, authorities said.
Zelenskiy called the strikes an attempt to “humiliate diplomatic efforts.”
Ukrainian shelling attacks in the Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson and Donetsk regions killed two people, Moscow-installed authorities said.
Russia currently occupies one-fifth of Ukraine.
It annexed Crimea in 2014 following a referendum denounced as a sham by Kyiv and the West, and did the same in 2022 in four Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia.
Russia controls Crimea and is largely in control of the Lugansk region, but not the other three regions.
Russia has suggested it might “freeze” the front line in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in exchange for getting control of land not already captured in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
A source briefed on a telephone call between Trump and European leaders on Saturday said that the US leader was “inclined to support” this proposal, but Zelenskiy has repeatedly shot down the notion of ceding territory to Moscow.
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