US diplomacy with Europe and Ukraine fell to Vice-President JD Vance on Saturday, when he visited the UK and held talks with Foreign Secretary David Lammy as well as two of Zelensky’s top aides.
Thanking Vance for the discussions, Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelensky’s office, stressed the need for Ukraine to be included.
“A reliable, lasting peace is only possible with Ukraine at the negotiating table,” he said. “A ceasefire is necessary – but the frontline is not a border.”
The summit in Alaska, the territory which Russia sold to the US in 1867, would be the first between sitting US and Russian presidents, since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021.
Nine months later, Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.
In 2022, the Kremlin announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – despite not having full control over them.
Moscow has failed to achieve a decisive breakthrough in its full-scale invasion, but occupies large swathes of Ukraine’s eastern territory. Ukrainian offensives, meanwhile, have not been able to push the Russian forces back.