Zelenskyy, EU urge Trump to reject land swaps ahead of Putin summit

Ukraine and the European Union are pressing US President Donald Trump to avoid any land swap agreements with Russian President Vladimir Putin without the involvement of Brussels and Kyiv, as the US leader prepares for a summit in Alaska on Friday (15 August).

Trump has pledged to end the three-year war in Ukraine and has suggested that a deal is near.

"I'm going in to speak to Vladimir Putin, and I'm going to be telling him, 'You've got to end this war. You've got to end it,'" he told reporters recently, reports AL Jazeera.

The US president also indicated that both Kyiv and Moscow would need to cede land, saying, "There'll be some land swapping going on." An idea neither side has previously accepted.

European leaders fear that major concessions to Russia could jeopardise regional security. On 13 August, top European officials met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy before holding talks with Trump and US Vice President JD Vance.

Zelenskyy has said he hopes the Alaska summit will be followed by "a trilateral meeting" with Trump and Putin, though Putin has so far refused to meet him.

The Ukrainian president added that, "I believe that Trump represents the United States of America. He is acting as a mediator – he is in the middle, not on Russia's side. Let him not be on our side but in the middle."

On 9 August, a joint statement from France, Italy, Germany, Poland, the UK, and the European Commission reiterated their "unwavering commitment to the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine" and stressed that "the path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine."

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned against decisions "over the heads of Europeans, over the heads of Ukrainians," while EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas insisted that any US–Russia deal must involve both Ukraine and the EU.

The EU and Ukraine are also demanding that a ceasefire come before any political or territorial arrangements. Putin's proposal, delivered to Washington on 6 August, called for Kyiv to cede the remaining third of Donetsk to Russia in exchange for halting fighting — a plan firmly rejected by European leaders.

Their counterproposal insists on reciprocal exchanges, security guarantees, and possible NATO membership for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy has vowed not to "give Russia any awards" or cede land, stressing that altering Ukraine's 1991 borders is unconstitutional. He also warned that Russia is preparing for further offensives, not peace.

Trump, however, has criticised Zelenskyy's resistance, saying he disagrees "very, very severely" with the Ukrainian leader and defending land swaps as potentially "for the good of Ukraine."

"I get along with Zelenskyy, but, you know, I disagree with what he's done. Very, very severely disagree. This is a war that should have never happened," Trump told reporters at the White House on 11 August.

President Trump suggested he could quickly determine whether a deal with Putin is possible once they meet.

"We're going to have a meeting with Vladimir Putin, and at the end of that meeting, probably in the first two minutes, I'll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made," he said.

"Ultimately, I'm going to put the two of them in a room. I'll be there, or I won't be there, and I think it'll get solved," Trump added.