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18 Aug 2025 14:03
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  •   Home > News > International

    Zelenskyy outlines peace terms amid reports Putin gave Trump territory demand

    The Ukrainian president outlines his terms for a peace deal ahead of next week's meeting with Donald Trump amid reports Vladimir Putin told the US president he would freeze front lines in exchange for Ukrainian territory.

    17 August 2025

    Volodymyr Zelenskyy has outlined his conditions for a peace deal in Ukraine ahead of next week's White House meeting with US President Donald Trump.

    The Ukrainian president has also called on his American counterpart to strengthen sanctions on Russia if President Vladimir Putin does not agree to a three-way meeting.

    US media is meanwhile reporting that Mr Putin told Mr Trump he was prepared to freeze most of the current battlefield front lines in exchange for Ukrainian territory.

    Mr Zelenskyy will travel to Washington to meet Mr Trump on Monday, local time, after Friday's Trump-Putin summit in Alaska failed to yield the ceasefire sought by the US president.

    After the summit Mr Trump said a full peace deal was the necessary next step rather than a ceasefire deal "which often times don't hold up".

    He said it was now "up to President Zelenskyy to get it done".

    Mr Trump also told told Fox News that "land swaps" were discussed with Mr Putin, which contradicts his earlier statements that he would leave those negotiations to the Ukrainians.

    Mr Putin spelled out demands for Ukrainian territory during the Alaska talks, namely the Donbas region in the country's east, Reuters and multiple US outlets reported.

    Terms for peace

    After a post-meeting phone call with Mr Trump, Mr Zelenskyy wrote on X that "a real peace must be achieved, one that will be lasting, not just another pause between Russian invasions".

    "Killings must stop as soon as possible, the fire must cease both on the battlefield and in the sky, as well as against our port infrastructure,"' he said.

    Mr Zelenskyy said Russia must release Ukrainian prisoners and return abducted children, decisions about territory must not be made without Ukrainian involvement, and Ukraine must receive security guarantees with both US and European involvement.

    "In my conversation with President Trump I said that sanctions should be strengthened if there is no trilateral meeting or if Russia tries to evade an honest end to the war," Mr Zelenskyy said.

    European leaders said their "Coalition of the Willing is ready to play an active role" in providing security guarantees.

    The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr Trump told European leaders he was open to US security guarantees. He had previously pushed back on such requests.

    He also said Mr Putin had accepted that any peace deal would require Western troops in Ukraine, the Journal said, citing several European officials.

    Mr Putin meanwhile told members of his administration that the Alaska meeting was "timely and very useful", according to a translation of a statement from the Kremlin.

    Trump eyes trilateral

    Politico has reported that Finnish President Alexander Stubb could accompany Mr Zelenskyy when he returns to the White House for the first time since his disastrous February visit.

    Relations have thawed since the farcical scenes where Mr Zelenskyy was criticised before the cameras in the Oval Office.

    European diplomats reportedly fear another flare-up and believe the presence of Mr Stubb, who has a good relationship with Mr Trump, could help to prevent it.

    Mr Trump has said if Monday's meeting with Mr Zelenskyy was a success he would schedule another with Mr Putin.

    He has been pushing for trilateral talks with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.

    But former Ukrainian assistant defence minister Alexander Khara has told the ABC the chances of that are minimal.

    "Mr Putin doesn't believe Ukraine is a country, he believes Mr Zelenskyy is an illegitimate leader, so he has no interest in sitting down with him," he said.

    "Then there's the fact that Mr Zelenskyy was a successful actor before he was president. Mr Putin as the head of the Russian state [and] a long-time political operative just does not believe Mr Zelenskyy is in his echelon."

    Mr Khara believes the end of the war is much further away than Mr Trump is leading on.

    'Painful' talk of surrendering land

    The idea of land being surrendered to Russia, even as part of a peace deal, is a galling one to many Ukrainians who have seen loved ones fight and die to protect the country's sovereign territory.

    For Ihor Titovskii, the thought was devastating.

    The 43-year-old left a comfortable life as a university professor to fight for his country when Russia illegally annexed Ukrainian territory in 2014.

    He joined the frontline again after Moscow ordered a full scale invasion in 2022.

    He was captured by Russian forces in the bloody siege of Mariupol and was beaten, tortured and starved in Russian captivity for 846 days, he said. 

    He was freed 11 months ago in a prisoner swap, but many of his friends are dead.

    "The idea of land being conceded is very painful to me as I was on the frontline in 2014 to fight Russia, so that would mean I would have wasted 11 years of my life," he said. 

    "It would have all been for nothing."

    The stress of service caused his life to fall apart, which he said made the idea of his country surrendering to Russia all the more painful.

    "I wouldn't have lost all of my friends, I wouldn't have lost my wife and my family," he said.

    "My friends sacrificed their life for this territory."

    Mr Titovskii, like many Ukrainians, was sceptical about what the summit between Mr Trump and Mr Putin would achieve.

    "Nothing has changed and the meeting hasn't solved anything," he said.

    "The question of Ukraine was probably discussed, but not the interests of Ukraine."

    'Trying to live our lives'

    Many residents of Kyiv who spoke to the ABC after the Alaska summit agreed Mr Trump was unlikely to deliver a path to peace.

    Eugene, a lifelong local who used to work for the Ukrainian ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko, said the summit was not taken seriously by many of his friends.

    "I don't think any of us really thought it would amount to anything," the 26-year-old said.

    "It's just Trump being Trump and Putin being Putin, so none of us are surprised.

    "The good thing to come from this is that in the five days leading up to the summit no sirens [alerting residents to air raids] have gone off so we've gotten some sleep.

    "A war is going on, yes, but we just have to try and live our life."

    Those sentiments were echoed by Yulia, a 30-year-old Kyiv resident the ABC met while she was shopping for fruit at a local market.

    "Emotionally it's very hard," she said.

    "Every day people are dying, people I know personally. But life goes on.

    "We go to restaurants, parties, we fall in love and we are trying to live our lives."

    Many Ukrainians are also frustrated with Mr Trump's perceived lack of nuance when dealing with the Kremlin.

    Mr Khara said the White House needed to better understand the motives of Mr Putin.

    "I don't think Mr Trump understands how brutal Mr Putin is and what he is willing to do to restore Russia's geopolitical prominence," he said.

    "Mr Trump can give away Alaska or Mar-a-Lago, but Ukrainian territory has nothing to do with him. Russia knows this.

    "All that has happened is that they've agreed to more talks".

    © 2025 ABC, NZCity


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