Zelenskyy draws line in the sand ahead of trilateral summit

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters that he is open to certain concessions in order to achieve peace with Russia, despite rejecting the ideas in the past.

Zelenskyy spoke to reporters in Brussels over the weekend, not long after President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Alaska for a historic summit.

During the meeting, Putin said that Ukraine would need to abandon its Donetsk and Luhansk regions on the eastern border as a condition for peace. Zelenskyy responded to the demands, and announced what he is considering an arrangement

‘Putin has been unable to take it for 12 years.’

Although he is set to meet with Trump Monday, the Ukrainian leader said that he would be open to “land swaps” in order to reach a peace deal with Russia, but rejected the idea that he should give up Donetsk.

A map of the region showing current battle lines (Aug. 14, per BBC), shows that while Luhansk is completely enveloped by Russian forces, about a third of Donetsk is still under Ukrainian control, as is a fair chunk of the Zaporizhzhia territory. Those front lines are where the negotiations should start from, Zelenskyy said.

“We need real negotiations, which means they can start where the front line is now,” Zelenskyy explained, according to the New York Post. “The contact line is the best line for talking.”

Ukraine’s strong defense of Donetsk was Zelenskyy’s proud talking point on the issue, noting, “Putin has been unable to take it for 12 years, and the Constitution of Ukraine makes it impossible to give up territory or trade land.”

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President Donald Trump greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on February 28, 2025. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

As peace gets closer, President Zelenskyy is seemingly changing his tune when compared to remarks he has made throughout the war.

In April 2022, he said “we cannot give up our territory,” in regards to ceding land in exchange for peace.

In a July 2022 interview with CNN, Zelensky also firmly rejected the idea of giving up territory.

The Ukrainian president also called it “insane” to consider giving territories to Russia in December 2023, referring to Russian troops as “terrorists” at the time.

Zelensky now says, “Since the territorial issue is so important, it should be discussed only by the leaders of Ukraine and Russia at the trilateral Ukraine-United States-Russia,” referring to a meeting between himself, Trump, and Putin.

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After Friday’s U.S.-Russia meeting, Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that “security measures” for Ukraine were “largely” agreed upon between himself and Putin, meaning Ukraine would get certain guarantees without being admitted into NATO.

Trump then said the peace deal is now “really up to President Zelenskyy to get it done.”

In response, Zelenskyy told reporters, “We really want to get an answer to these questions in order to understand what ‘security guarantees’ are.”

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