Zelensky excludes waiver of Donbas, where the Russians offer a new progress

President Voludmir Zelinski said that Ukraine will reject any Russian proposal to abandon the Donbas region in exchange for a ceasefire, warning that it can be used as a starting point for future attacks.

Zelinski was speaking before a meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.

Trump said that any peace deal will include “some land exchange” and believes that one of Putin’s demands is that Kiev surrenders parts of Donbas that still control.

Meanwhile, Russian forces continued their summer attack, as they provided a sudden payment force near the eastern town of Dobubilia and strengthened 10 kilometers (six miles) in a short period of time.

Zelensky admitted that progress had occurred in “several sites”, but he said that Kyiv would soon destroy the units involved in the attack.

While underestimating Russia’s progress, he added that it was “clear to us” that Moscow’s goal is to create a “specific information space” before Putin meets Trump that “Russia is progressing, progressing, while Ukraine loses.”

There were no official details about what Vladimir Putin was demanding to present when Donald Trump meets in Anchorage on Friday.

Donbas – consisting of the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk – has partially occupied Russia since 2014.

Moscow now has almost all of Luhansk and about 70 % of Donetsk, but it spoke with correspondents on Tuesday, and Zelinski again confirmed that Ukraine will reject any suggestion to leave Donbas.

“If we withdraw from Donbas today – we are fortified, our terrain, the highlands we control – we will clearly open the bridge head of the Russians to prepare an attack,” he said.

Zelensky has already insisted that the Ukrainians would not “present their lands to the occupier” and referred to the country’s constitution, which requires a referendum before the change in its territory.

In his night speech on Tuesday, Zelinski also said that Moscow is preparing for new attacks on three parts of the front areas – Zaporesvia, Boukrovsk and Nofopvafov regions.

Last week, Trump said there would be “some land exchange to improve” Russia and Ukraine – Anxiety in Kyiv and through Europe Moscow can be allowed to re -draw the borders of Ukraine by force.

Russia is currently controlling less than 20 % of Ukrainian lands.

The White House said on Tuesday that Alaska’s talks would be a “listening exercise” for Trump and added his presence and Putin sat in the same room will give the US President “the best indication of how this war ended.”

This follows Trump, describing the summit as a “sense meeting” on Monday, and it seems that it removes expectations that the meeting on Friday, Ukraine and Russia, can be closer to peace.

When the summit was announced last week, Trump seemed to be positive that the meeting could lead to concrete steps towards peace.

“I think the intestine instinct really tells me that we have a bullet in it,” he said.

But Ukrainian President Zelinski once again expressed serious doubts that the talks could lead to a positive result Kiev, which was excluded from the summit. “I don’t know what they will talk about without us,” he said.

Zelensky has moved away from Trump’s criticism, but in recent days his frustration of his marginalization became clear, and on Tuesday he said that Alaska’s choice was a “personal victory” by Putin.

“He comes out of isolation, because they meet with him on American soil,” he said.

The Ukrainian leader has already said that any agreements without the involvement of Kyiv will be “dead decisions.”

On Wednesday, Zelinski is scheduled to join a virtual meeting with Donald Trump’s leaders, European Union leaders, UK Prime Minister Sir Kerr Starmer, and NATO President Mark Roti.

All parties will try to persuade Trump of the need for Putin to be affected when the two meet at the organized summit.