Ahead of Alaska summit with Putin, US president signals potential territorial concessions as Europe warns against imposed peace
US President Donald Trump has said that both Kyiv and Moscow will have to cede territory to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, signalling a potential shift in peace talks ahead of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
Speaking at a White House press conference, Trump described the upcoming talks as “a feel-out meeting,” saying he would know “probably in the first two minutes” whether progress toward a deal was possible. “I’m going to be telling him, ‘You’ve got to end this war,’” Trump said, adding that a future meeting could also include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The US goal, he stressed, is a rapid ceasefire in the three-and-a-half-year-old conflict.
European leaders and Zelenskyy plan to speak with Trump before the summit amid concerns that Washington could push for a settlement requiring major concessions from Ukraine. While Trump has toughened his stance toward Moscow — approving additional US weapons for Kyiv and threatening tariffs on buyers of Russian oil — his talk of “land swapping” has alarmed allies.
“I know that through Russia and through conversations with everybody, to the good of Ukraine,” Trump said, suggesting some territory could be returned while acknowledging Russia currently controls “very prime territory.”
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned that no concessions should be considered until Moscow agrees to a full and unconditional ceasefire. “The sequencing of the steps is important,” she said, confirming work on a 19th sanctions package against Russia. “First an unconditional ceasefire with a strong monitoring system and ironclad security guarantees.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney echoed that any peace deal must be built with Ukraine, not imposed upon it. Meanwhile, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that lasting peace would require “an unconditional ceasefire as a prerequisite for substantive negotiations.”
With neither side open to ceding land so far, Trump’s proposal faces steep diplomatic resistance ahead of the Alaska talks.