President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Saturday flatly rejected President Trump’s proposal that a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia could include “some swapping of territories” — a plan that would in effect mean ceding land to Moscow.
“Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier,” Mr. Zelensky said in a video address from his office in Kyiv, several hours after Mr. Trump’s remarks.
“Any decisions made against us, any decisions made without Ukraine, are at the same time decisions against peace,” Mr. Zelensky said. “They will bring nothing. These are dead decisions; they will never work.”
Mr. Zelensky’s blunt rejection risks angering Mr. Trump, who has made a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia one of his signature foreign policy goals, even if it means accepting terms that are unfavorable to Kyiv. In the past, Mr. Trump has criticized Ukraine for clinging to what he suggested were stubborn cease-fire demands and for being “not ready for peace.”
Mr. Trump said on Friday that he would meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Aug. 15 in Alaska to discuss a possible peace deal, with potential land swaps likely on the agenda.
“We’re going to get some back, and we’re going to get some switched,” Mr. Trump said during an event at the White House. “There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.”
Mr. Zelensky’s stand reflects a widely held view in Ukraine against surrendering territory to end the war. A recent poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that a little more than half of Ukrainians believed that “under no circumstances” should the country cede land, “even if this makes the war last longer and threatens the preservation of independence.”
Support for land concessions, however, has grown since Ukraine’s failed 2023 counteroffensive, which underscored its inability to retake substantial territory. About 38 percent of the population thinks ceding land is acceptable now, according to the poll, up from just 10 percent about two years ago.
Still, Mr. Trump’s suggestion, which did not clarify which territories could be swapped, struck a raw nerve among some Ukrainians.
Petro Poroshenko, Mr. Zelensky’s predecessor, wrote on Facebook that “Ukrainians are a nation that does not trade its own territories. Therefore, we cannot set a precedent where peace is achieved at the expense of concessions on the part of Ukraine,” he added.
In rejecting Mr. Trump’s proposal, Mr. Zelensky invoked Ukraine’s constitution, which states that the Ukrainian territory is indivisible and inviolable. “The answer to Ukraine’s territorial question is already in the Constitution of Ukraine,” Mr. Zelensky said. “No one will step back from this, nor will anyone be able to.”
Mr. Zelensky said that Ukraine was “ready, together with President Trump and with all our partners, to work for a real and, most importantly, lasting peace — a peace that will not fall apart because of Moscow’s desires.”
Constant Méheut reports on the war in Ukraine, including battlefield developments, attacks on civilian centers and how the war is affecting its people.
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