KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday dismissed the planned summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, warning that any peace deal excluding Kyiv would lead to “dead solutions.”
The Trump-Putin meeting, scheduled for Friday in Alaska, is seen as a potential breakthrough in the more than three-year war.
Trump had previously agreed to meet with Putin even if the Russian leader would not meet with Zelenskyy, stoking fears Ukraine could be sidelined in efforts to stop Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.
In a statement posted to Telegram, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s territorial integrity, enshrined in the constitution, must be nonnegotiable, and emphasized that lasting peace must include Ukraine’s voice at the table.
Realistically, Ukraine only really wants security guarantees. That is THE deal. They would be willing to ceed Crimea and dombas. I think. I mean maybe not, I don’t have any special insight. But like Donbas, it’s not a place people in other parts of Ukraine would be willing to die for in masses (I think).
The main thing is security guarantees and I think it’s PRO how they are running their diplomacy.
I think if they were offered NATO, they would ceed a lot for that.
But… That’s exactly what Russians don’t want. They want influence. They want direct influence that would show they are a real super power. Which by now, everybody sees they are not, but grasping for straws… influence over demilitarized Ukraine would kind of show they are a super power. Not really, but a bit for their own population.
However, there is no way in hell they can get that. Because even now Ukraine is too strong for them to take any city of significance. Even if US stops sending weapons altogether.
So… The peace… We aren’t close, unless Putin can convince people internally that they won , when they don’t… but, then he has to worry all about the postwar economy which would be described in several rude words.
It’s a truly bad situation.
If Putin gains parts of Ukraine, the war will not end. It means he succeeded in the war; that the west is weak. Which in turn means the war will “end” as in Russia will just regroup and build it’s war resources for a while - maybe some years, maybe more, maybe less - and then attack somewhere again. Why would they stop? Russian imperialism is not based on logic or reason; it was insane to attack Ukraine in the first place.
It is pointless to expect Putin to be somehow reasonable or actively want to stop warring. It is also completely pointless to believe whatever he or his lackeys say, they’ve lied from every step on the way and will continue to do so for their own benefit. It’s very likely the war will continue whatever the result in Ukraine is anyway, it can only be postponed now that Russia has again started on this damned path. If Putin gains land, they won and it’ll continue; if they don’t gain anything, Putin needs to attack again to prove it wasn’t a loss. I cannot believe people still seem to think you can somehow just reason with Russia
Its not about land, it’s about security guarantees. Ukraine doesn’t really need the lands in question and Russia don’t really want it. Ukraine wins with security guarantees and Russia won’t allow it, because that means they are not a super power and cannot project power not even to a neighboring country.
Sure the pieces of land don’t matter to but the ukrainians, but if Putin gains anything it’ll signal to his own that he won and that attacking works. At this point any security guarantees mean basically nothing since the west has shown such a weak response, and Putin will just challenge the promises the moment he has the opportunity. Seeing how USA and western Europe still don’t seem to fully understand the situation, it’s easy to believe Ukraine can’t trust any guarantees given unless it’s something like straight up joining NATO, which isn’t on the table.
Yes, security guarantees such as something similar to NATO or US and EU forces at the border. That is a security guarantee. Nothing else would do. That’s obvious.
Ukraine would give land for that. The point is, Russia doesn’t want or need the land. They want to project power, not gain 0.05% to the territory they already have.
Ukraine already had security promises from the US, UK, France, and China.
It didn’t help them in 2014, and now the US is trying to help Russia again.
I doubt Ukraine will accept any security promise short of being an official member of NATO
NATO is not a realistic option.
I think they would accept EU with EU military forces at the new border.
Ukraine only really wants security guarantees.
Russia provided a security guarantee when Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons - see how well that went?
Yes, that was worthless. NATO or EU military forces on the border would be a different cookie.
As someone had put it earlier - Pooty tries to trade territories that he can’t conquer for promise of not trying to conquer other territories he also can’t conquer.
So it’s really important that if Taco Don will actually go to listen to Pooty’s lecture about Pechenegs and other linguistic diarrhea both of them like to spew all the time - that the former will go there with no expectation that Ukraine will accept demands it didn’t for previous 3 years.
It also bears mentioning that Putin has an established precedent of just… you know… ignoring guarantees and deals of that nature. For instance: the Budapest Memorandum, of which they were one of the primary signatories.
Considering Budapest memorandum I absolutely resent USA as they were very enthusiastic about pressuring Ukraine to give up its armaments. And guess to whom the armaments were given? - Yeah, to Russia - missiles, bombers, and other shit that Russia uses to terrorize us today.
As of Pooty and breaking of agreements - he enters negotiations when he’s at disadvantage and breaks them whenever he gains back enough strength to ignore consequences of breaking his promises. That’s why it’s very important to not remove sanctions against Russia entirely even if they actually agree to let Ukraine have it’s 1991 borders back. Their evils should never be forgiven or forgotten.
For future reference, it’s cede not ceed.
Gracias.