Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine could not violate its constitution on territorial issues, adding that “Ukrainians will not give their land to occupiers”.
Commenting on US President Donald Trump’s decision to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on 15 August, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine was ready for real solutions that could bring peace.
But he added that any solutions without Ukraine would be solutions against peace.
“Any decisions against us, any decisions without Ukraine, are also decisions against peace. They will achieve nothing,” he said.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with millions forced to flee their homes.
Mr Putin held consultations with the leaders of China and India ahead of the summit with Mr Trump, who has spent his first months in office trying to broker peace in Ukraine without making a breakthrough.
“The highly anticipated meeting between myself, as President of the United States of America, and President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, will take place next Friday, August 15, 2025, in the Great State of Alaska,” Mr Trump said on his Truth Social site.
He said earlier at the White House that “there’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both” Ukraine and Russia, without providing further details.
The Alaska summit would be the first between sitting US and Russian presidents since Joe Biden met Vladimir Putin in June 2021
Three rounds of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have failed to bear fruit, and it remains unclear whether a summit would bring peace any closer.
Russian bombardments have forced millions of people to flee their homes and have destroyed swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine.
Mr Putin has resisted multiple calls from the United States, Europe and Ukraine for a ceasefire.
The Russian leader has also ruled out holding talks with Volodymyr Zelensky at this stage, a meeting the Ukrainian president says is necessary to make headway on a deal.
At talks in Istanbul last month, Russian negotiators outlined hardline territorial demands for halting its advance – calling for Ukraine to withdraw from some territory it controls and to renounce Western military support.
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The Alaska summit would be the first between sitting US and Russian presidents since Joe Biden met Mr Putin in Geneva in June 2021.
Mr Trump and Mr Putin last sat together in 2019 at a G20 summit meeting in Japan during Trump’s first term. They have spoken by telephone several times since January.
Witkoff visit
The Kremlin said that Mr Putin had updated Chinese President Xi Jinping on “the main results of his conversation” with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who visited Moscow earlier this week.
The Chinese leader expressed support for a “long-term” solution to the conflict, the Kremlin said.
China’s Xinhua state news agency quoted Mr Xi as having told Mr Putin: “China is glad to see Russia and the United States maintain contact, improve their relations, and promote a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.”
Russia and China have deepened political, economic and military ties since the start of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Steve Witkoff at the Kremlin earlier this week (Credit: Kremlin Press Service/Handout)
Mr Putin also spoke by phone to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after both countries condemned new US tariffs over New Delhi’s oil purchases from Russia.
The Chinese and Indian leaders have both tried to tout their own peace initiatives for Ukraine, though they have gained little traction.
Mr Putin, a former KGB agent who has ruled Russia for more than 25 years, said in June that he was ready to meet Mr Zelensky, but only during a “final phase” of negotiations on ending the conflict.
In his regular evening address on Thursday, Mr Zelensky said “it is only fair that Ukraine should be a participant in the negotiations.”
Donetsk governor Vadym Filashkin said that families with children would be evacuated from 19 more villages in the region’s east, where Russian forces have been advancing.
The villages, home to hundreds of people, are all within about 30km of the front line.