(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday ahead of his meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
Joining the virtual meeting will be other European leaders, who, alongside Zelenskyy, have been sidelined from the summit regarding an end to the war in Ukraine, according to the Associated Press.
Zelenskyy has said he believes Putin is not interested in negotiating during the meeting in Alaska, which will be Putin’s first trip to the United States since 2015.
Trump has said he wants to see whether Putin is serious about ending the war, now in its fourth year, and has described the summit as “a feel-out meeting” in which he can assess the Russian leader’s intentions. Trump has suggested land swaps could play a role in bringing the war to an end.
However, Zelenskyy has rejected the idea that his country would give up land to end the war. Zelenskyy said Ukraine “will not give Russia any awards for what it has done” and that “Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and other European leaders are demanding Putin first agree to a ceasefire before any peace talks or land swaps between Moscow and Kyiv can take place, Politico reported. In addition, Merz and other leaders are requesting, should any land swaps happen, they must be agreed to by Kyiv and that Russia should give Ukraine security guarantees to protect it from future attacks.
