European leaders were pulling together an alternative peace plan for Ukraine on Saturday night before Donald Trump’s summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
The US president will meet Putin on American soil without President Zelensky, to seek an end to the war. Trump has strongly suggested a deal would involve Kyiv conceding territory, but in an address to the nation yesterday morning, Zelensky insisted that Ukrainians “will not gift their land to the occupier”.
Hours later JD Vance, the US vice-president, outlined Trump’s plan for the summit to senior European and Ukrainian officials at a meeting co-hosted by David Lammy at Chevening, the foreign secretary’s mansion in Kent.
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Those present included Jonathan Powell, the UK’s national security adviser, Andriy Yermak, head of Zelensky’s office, and Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council.
European officials put forward alternative proposals, according to The Wall Street Journal, including that any territorial concession by Kyiv must be safeguarded by ironclad security guarantees, including potential Nato membership.
David Lammy and JD Vance discussed details about the summit during his visit to Chevening
KIN CHEUNG/AP
Russia must also agree to a ceasefire before any other steps are taken and that territory can only be exchanged in a reciprocal manner, meaning that if Ukraine pulls out of some regions, Russia must withdraw from others.
The countries involved in the Chevening talks had been expected to sign a joint statement on Saturday night. However, several hours after a draft had been worked up, a final version had still not been issued amid reported wrangling over the text.
Earlier, Zelensky made a flurry of calls to European allies, speaking to his counterparts in the UK, France, Spain, Finland, Denmark and Estonia.
After a call with Sir Keir Starmer, a Downing Street spokesman said: “Both leaders welcomed President Trump’s desire to bring this barbaric war to an end and agreed that we must keep up the pressure on Putin to end his illegal war. The prime minister ended the call by reiterating his unwavering support for Ukraine and its people.”
President Macron declared that Ukrainians and Europeans must not be excluded from negotiations. “Ukraine’s future cannot be decided without the Ukrainians who have been fighting for their freedom and security for more than three years now,” he wrote on social media.
“Europeans will also necessarily be part of the solution because their security depends on it.”
President Macron said that Ukrainians and Europeans must not be excluded from negotiations
RALF HIRSCHBERGER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
On Friday, Trump announced he would meet Putin this week in Alaska — the first time the Russian leader will have visited America in a decade. Critics say the gesture has given Putin validation after western allies sought to make him a pariah following his full invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The meeting was confirmed on the day that Trump had threatened to impose secondary tariffs on countries buying Russian oil if Putin had not ended the war. No new sanctions were announced.
Instead, Trump suggested that a peace deal would involve Kyiv ceding territory. “There will be some swapping of territories, to the betterment of both,” he said.
Hours later, Zelensky pushed back. “The answer to the Ukrainian territorial question is already in the constitution in Ukraine,” he said. “No one will deviate from this — and no one will be able to.”
Efforts to end the war in Ukraine gained momentum last week with a three-hour meeting in the Kremlin between Putin and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who briefed colleagues in the White House that Russia was willing to agree to a ceasefire.
But confusion quickly followed. Sources in the US said that Witkoff had struggled to clearly describe what Russia’s proposals were. A European diplomat said they were concerned that Witkoff did not fully grasp the message that Russia was sending to the US.
Fire breaks out in Kherson after a Russian attack last week
KHERSON REGIONAL MILITARY ADMINISTRATION/ANADOLU/GETTY IMAGES
A bridge was destroyed
KHERSON REGIONAL MILITARY ADMINISTRATION/ANADOLU/GETTY IMAGES
Negotiations appear to be focused on four regions in the east and south of Ukraine: Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk. Russia annexed all four in 2022 although it did not control any entirely.
Putin is expected to tell Trump that Russia would agree to a ceasefire if Ukraine surrendered Donetsk and Luhansk, the coal-mining territories collectively known as the Donbas. In exchange, Putin is thought to be ready to freeze the front lines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Ukraine would be forced to withdraw troops from Donetsk, where its forces control around a third of the territory, but Russia is advancing steadily. Towns and cities such as Kramatorsk and Sloviansk are coming under intense drone and missile attack.
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About 700 people a day are fleeing their homes, a figure that has doubled since last month, according to Ukrainian officials. Russia said last month that its army had seized the whole of Luhansk.
Two people died when a Russian drone struck their car in the Zaporizhzhia region yesterday, while two others were killed when a Russian drone hit a minibus in Kherson.
For Ukrainian soldiers, surrendering their homes in the Donbas would be a bitter pill to swallow. Oleh, a serviceman who was injured during fighting in the Donbas, opposed surrender, saying “if we give up the Donbas, what’s to stop Putin coming back for more later?”
Although Zelensky has said he will not give up land, 69 per cent of Ukrainians want a settlement to the war as soon as possible, according to a Gallup poll. Just 24 per cent said they thought Ukraine should fight on until victory.