Zelensky says Putin wants Ukrainian region as part of ceasefire

BRUSSELS (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from the remaining 30 percent of the Donetsk region as part of a cease-fire agreement.

Zelenskyy claimed that Russia's position was conveyed to him by U.S. officials ahead of a Friday summit between Putin and President Donald Trump in Alaska. Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine will not withdraw from the territories it controls, saying that would be unconstitutional and would only serve as a springboard for a future Russian invasion.

It was still unclear whether Ukraine would participate in Friday's summit. The European Union has also been excluded from the meeting, and on Tuesday they appealed to Trump to protect their interests.

Zelenskyy indicated at a press conference in Kyiv that Putin wants the remaining 9,000 square kilometers (3,500 square miles) of Donetsk, where the heaviest battles of the war are being fought, as part of a ceasefire. He said the Russian position was conveyed to him by U.S. officials.

Doing so would give Russia almost all of Donbas, a region comprising the industrial heartland of eastern Ukraine that Putin has long coveted.

Zelenskyy offered new details about the call he had with Trump and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, following the latter's bilateral meeting with Putin. Witkoff told Zelenskyy that Russia was ready to end the war and that there should be territorial concessions from both sides. Several European partners also participated in the call.

“And that, probably, is what Putin wants us to leave Donbas. I mean, it didn't sound like the United States wants us to leave,” he noted, recalling the call. Additional meetings at the level of National Security Advisors further clarified what Russia really wanted, Zelenskyy asserted.

Meanwhile, Russian forces on the ground have been moving closer to a key territorial seizure around the town of Pokrovsk, potentially to use as leverage in any peace negotiations.

Seeking Trump's attention before the summit

Trump has said he wants to see if Putin is serious about ending the war, now in its fourth year. The president has disappointed allies in Europe by saying Ukraine will have to give up some of its territory now held by Russia. He also mentioned that Moscow must agree to land swaps, though it's unclear what Putin might give up.

Europeans and Ukraine fear that Putin, who has waged the largest land war in Europe since 1945 and has used Russia's energy power to try to intimidate the EU, could extract favorable concessions and establish the outlines of a peace agreement without them.

The widespread fear among European countries is that Putin will set his sights on one of them if he wins in Ukraine.

Their leaders stated Tuesday that they "welcome President Trump's efforts to end Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine." But they stressed that "the path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine" and that "international borders must not be changed by force."

The Europeans will make a new attempt to win Trump over to Ukraine on Wednesday in virtual meetings convened by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Trump did not confirm his participation, but said, "I'm going to get everyone's ideas" before meeting with Putin.

Russia maintains a fragile control over four regions of the country, two in the east and two in the south.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy's chief of staff, noted that anything short of Russia's strategic defeat would mean any ceasefire agreement would be made on Moscow's terms, eroding international law and sending a dangerous signal to the world.

A 'deeply alarming moment for Europe'

Trump's public rehabilitation of Putin—a pariah in most of Europe—has unsettled supporters of Ukraine.

The Alaska summit is a “deeply alarming moment for Europe,” said Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

According to Gould-Davies, Putin could persuade Trump to try to end the war by "accepting Russian sovereignty" over parts of Ukraine, even beyond the areas it currently occupies. Trump could also ease or lift sanctions that are causing "chronic pain" to the Russian economy.

That would cause a "really serious split in the transatlantic alliance," he said.

Putin is not so much interested in territorial expansion as in subordinating Ukraine, which would give him the opportunity to threaten other parts of Europe, Gould-Davies noted.

It was unclear whether the Europeans were also unsettled by Trump's erroneous claim that he would travel to Russia on Friday to meet with Putin. The summit will be held in the US state of Alaska, which was colonized by Russia in the 18th century until Tsar Alexander II sold it to the United States in a territorial deal in 1867.

Tuesday's joint European statement was presented as a show of unity. But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is Putin's closest ally in Europe and has sought to block EU support for kyiv, was the only one of the bloc's 27 leaders to refuse to endorse it.

Russia approaches Pokrovsk

Russia appeared to be on the verge of taking a major city in the Donetsk region, Pokrovsk.

Military analysts who use open-source information to monitor the battles say the next 24-48 hours could be critical. The conquest of Pokrovsk would give the Kremlin a significant battlefield victory ahead of the summit. It would also complicate Ukrainian supply distribution lines to the Donetsk region, where the Kremlin has focused most of its military efforts.

“Much will depend on the availability, quantity, and quality of Ukrainian reserves,” wrote Pasi Paroinen, an analyst with the Finland-based Black Bird Group, in a social media post Monday night.

The Ukrainian army said its forces are repelling Kremlin infantry units attempting to infiltrate its defensive positions in Donetsk province. The Ukrainian military command in the region posted on social media Monday that rival soldiers who cross its lines to capture more territory “face inevitable death,” but acknowledged that the situation remains “difficult, unpleasant, and dynamic.”

Elsewhere in Ukraine, a Russian missile attack on a military training facility left one soldier dead and 11 wounded, the Ukrainian Ground Forces reported on social media. Soldiers running for shelters were hit by cluster munitions, they added.