Zelenskyy won’t cede territory for peace deal ahead of Trump-Putin summit as trilateral meeting teased

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that Ukraine will not give up any territory to Russia in efforts to reach a peace deal ahead of talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin next week.

In a video posted on his social media accounts on Saturday, Zelenskyy addressed the war with Russia and said while he is ready for the conflict to end, Ukraine will not “gift” land to Moscow in the process.

“The answer to the Ukrainian territorial question already is in the Constitution of Ukraine. No one will deviate from this—and no one will be able to. Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier,” Zelenskyy said.

TRUMP, PUTIN WILL HOLD FIRST IN-PERSON MEETING SINCE UKRAINE INVASION NEXT WEEK IN ALASKA

His remarks come after Trump talked about the upcoming summit at the White House on Friday, stating that a deal to end the war could include “swapping of territories.”

ZELENSKYY TELLS PUTIN TO ‘BE BRAVE’ AND FINALLY AGREE TO TRILATERAL MEETING WITH TRUMP

Later Saturday, a White House spokesperson told Fox News: “The President remains open to a trilateral summit with [Putin and Zelenskyy]. Right now, the White House is planning the bilateral meeting requested by President Putin.”

Earlier this week, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the “Russians expressed their desire to meet with President Trump, and the President is open to this meeting. President Trump would like to meet with both President Putin and President Zelensky because he wants this brutal war to end. The White House is working through the details of these potential meetings and details will be provided at the appropriate time.” 

Russia confirmed this week that including Zelenskyy has been mentioned.

“As for the option of a trilateral meeting, which for some reason was discussed yesterday in Washington, this option was simply mentioned by the American representative during the meeting in the Kremlin,” Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said. “But this option was not specifically discussed. The Russian side left this option completely, without comment. We propose first of all to focus on preparing a bilateral meeting with D. Trump and we believe that the main thing is for this meeting to be successful and productive.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The Alaska meeting comes as Trump is attempting to broker a peace deal between the two countries as the war has continued for more than three years since Russia invaded in 2022. 

Fox News’ Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.