European leaders have rallied in support of Ukraine after a defiant Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> rejected Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s suggestion that a peace plan may involve giving up land to Russia<\/a>. <\/p>\n President Trump, who is set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin next Friday in Alaska as he seeks to bring an end to the war, has said the talks could include \u201csome swapping of territories\u201d.<\/p>\n But an angry President Zelensky hit back on Saturday, insisting Ukraine \u201cwill not give Russia any awards for what it has done\u201d <\/a>and that \u201cUkrainians will not give their land to the occupier\u201d. <\/p>\n Members of the so-called coalition of the willing \u2013 countries which have pledged support for Ukraine against Russia\u2019s aggression \u2013 were quick to show their support, insisting that any deal must include Ukraine and Europe, warning its security is \u201cat stake\u201d.<\/p>\n The show of unity came as the UK hosted a hastily arranged meeting of national security advisers from the US, Ukraine and European countries on Saturday. The meeting at David Lammy\u2019s official country retreat, Chevening, Kent, and held with US vice-president JD Vance, was called to \u201cdiscuss progress towards securing a just and lasting peace\u201d.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer tour the streets of Kyiv, Ukraine, after a meeting of the so-called \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d at the Presidential Palace (Stefan Rousseau\/PA) in France earlier this year (PA Wire)<\/p>\n Sir Keir Starmer on Saturday reiterated \u201chis unwavering support for Ukraine and its people\u201d, while France\u2019s President Emmanuel Macron said the UK and Germany were \u201cready to work as productively as possible for the sake of real peace\u201d after a call with Sir Keir and Chancellor Frederich Merz. <\/p>\n Confirming next week\u2019s summit with the US president in Alaska, the Kremlin said Mr Trump and Mr Putin<\/a> would focus on discussing options for achieving a \u201clong-term peaceful resolution\u201d. <\/p>\n President Putin is expected to use the meeting to set out his demands, including that Ukraine give up two eastern regions as well as Crimea.<\/p>\n Announcing the talks to reporters at the White House on Friday, Mr Trump said any deal may include the \u201csome swapping of territories\u201d, adding: \u201cWe\u2019re going to get some back. We\u2019re going to get some switched. There will be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Mr Zelensky has rejected that notion and said his country would not violate its constitution by ceding territory. <\/p>\n \u201cUkrainians will not give their land to occupiers,\u201d he said. He also warned that any peace deal that excluded Kyiv would lead to \u201cdead solutions\u201d.<\/p>\n President Trump\u2019s decision to meet Mr Putin has fuelled fears that Ukraine could be sidelined in the efforts to end the war. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Sir Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelensky have spoken, No 10 said (Stefan Rousseau\/PA) (PA Wire)<\/p>\n But Mr Zelensky issued a staunch warning to the international community that any agreement reached without Ukraine would ultimately fail. <\/p>\n He said: \u201cAny decisions that are without Ukraine are at the same time decisions against peace. They will not bring anything. These are dead decisions. They will never work.\u201d<\/p>\n After his call with Sir Keir, Mr Zelensky said the two men \u201cshared the same view on the need for a truly lasting peace\u201d and on the danger of Russia\u2019s plan to reduce everything to discussing the impossible. <\/p>\n A Downing Street spokesperson said: \u201cBoth leaders welcomed President Trump\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Macron insisted that \u201cUkraine\u2019s future cannot be decided without the Ukrainians\u201d and warned that \u201cEuropeans will also necessarily be part of the solution, as their own security is at stake\u201d.<\/p>\n Kristen Michal, Estonia\u2019s prime minister, joined the chorus of support, saying she agreed \u201cthat security decisions for Ukraine matter for everyone in Europe\u201d. Pointing to demands for Ukraine to give up land to secure peace, she added: \u201cRespect for territorial integrity is the foundation of stable international relations and changing borders by force can never be accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n This was echoed by Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, who wrote on X: \u201cAny lasting settlement must respect UA’s sovereignty \u2013 nothing about UA without UA. DK stands with our partners for a ceasefire built on Ukrainian strength and Western unity and resolve.\u201d<\/p>\n And after his phone call with Mr Zelensky, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, the prime minister of Spain, said: \u201cWe must reach a just and lasting peace that respects Ukraine\u2019s independence and sovereignty. Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. We must remain united.\u201d<\/p>\n Russia has previously claimed four Ukrainian regions \u2013 Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson \u2013 as well as the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in 2014.<\/p>\n Mr Putin\u2019s forces do not fully control all land in those areas and Moscow has demanded that Ukraine withdraw its troops from the parts they still control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[332],"class_list":{"0":"post-331275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-russia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115000408578642175","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ukrainian](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20ceca7142462249998bf6dc67cf4f68Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzQ3MDQzNDQ4-2.80060355.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Sir](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/b7ba0219a8b94af1633014cb82b5f258Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzUwMjgwNTY1-2.80060371.jpg\")
<\/p>\n