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Zelensky rejects ‘proposal’ to give up eastern Donbas region to Putin in exchange for peace
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US president Donald Trump will virtually meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and leaders across Europe and Nato today.
The call, organised by German chancellor Friedrich Merz, comes ahead of Trump’s summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska on Friday as he endeavours to end the war in Ukraine.
Zelensky will reportedly travel to Berlin especially for the meeting with Merz and Trump, although other world leaders – including coalition of the willing members such as Sir Keir Starmer – are set to join the conversation.
European leaders remain concerned that they are being sidelined in the Trump-Putin summit and the Russian leader will set his sights on them if a lenient ceasefire deal on Ukraine is brokered.
It comes as Putin has demanded Ukrainian forces withdraw from Donetsk as part of any ceasefire deal potentially brokered by Donald Trump, Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian president said Mr Putin wanted the remaining 30 per cent, or 3,500 square miles of the region, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the three-and-a-half-year-old war.
But Mr Zelensky vowed Ukraine would “never leave” the Donbas and warned Mr Putin’s troops could use it as a spring board for a future invasion.
Ukraine’s military said on Wednesday its drones hit the Uniecha oil pumping station in Russia’s Bryansk region overnight.
“Damage and a large-scale fire were recorded in the area of the booster pumping station building,” the Ukrainian General Staff said on Telegram.
Russia launched 49 Shahed drones from the Kursk, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Shatalovo directions in Russia, as well as two ballistic missiles.
The drones attacked Donetsk, Sumy and Chernihiv region,s while missiles targeted Poltava, according to Ukraine’s air forces.
Ukraine’s army was able to shoot down or suppress 32 drones and two missiles.
A Gallup poll released last week found that 69 per cent of Ukrainians favour a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible. But polls also show Ukrainians do not want peace at any cost if that means crushing concessions.
This comes as Putin has requested Kyiv withdraws its troops from the eastern Donbas region, a large swathe of which is already occupied by Russia. Zelensky has said it would be impossible to agree a deal under those terms, depriving Ukraine of a vast defensive network in the region that prevents Russia from pushing deeper into Ukraine in the future.
Territorial issues, he added, could only be discussed once a ceasefire has been put in place and Ukraine has received security guarantees.
Moscow’s troops have recently ramped up pressure on the battlefield, tightening their stranglehold on the cities of Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky are scheduled to deliver press statements at around 2pm GMT (3pm BST) on Wednesday in Berlin, according to the German chancellery’s schedule.
Zelensky is in the German capital on a day of talks between Western leaders ahead of US president Donald Trump’s planned summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky will be in Berlin on Wednesday, his spokesman said. “The president is working in Berlin today,” the spokesman said, adding that a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is planned too.
Former Conservative MP Jack Lopresti, who has joined the Ukraine Foreign Legion, has condemned the upcoming summit between Trump and Putin while speaking to Sky News.
“Europe has to be prepared to do more in terms of defence manufacturing, defence spending, the size of their militaries, and to provide a credible deterrent against Putin’s aggression now and future aggression.
“The days of relying on the Americans are probably now long gone.”
He continued: “There shouldn’t even be talks between Putin and Trump on an individual basis without President Zelensky, and there certainly shouldn’t be any talks without a ceasefire.
“Putin’s being rewarded with this high profile event. He’s conceded nothing. He hasn’t in any way diminished his view that Ukraine should be a sovereign country.”
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is set to travel to Berlin today where he will join German chancellor Friedrich Merz for a video call with US president Donald Trump, a government source has told Reuters.
European leaders will meet with Nato and EU officials, as well as Zelensky, at 12pm GMT (1pm BST).
An hour later, European leaders will meet separately with Trump and US vice president JD Vance.
The coalition of the willing, hosted by Germany France and the UK, will then meet at 2.30pm (3.30pm BST), before Chancellor Merz enters a press conference at a time that has not been revealed yet.
Read here for more information on what we know about this European summit:
Russian president Vladimir Putin held a phone call with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to reaffirm their “friendship” ahead of his summit with Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday.
Putin and Kim spoke yesterday, pledging “closer contact in the future” and discussing issues of mutual concern, according to North Korea’s state media, the Korean Central News Agency reported.
Their call comes as the Russian leader is set to meet Trump on Friday in Alaska for the first time since the US president’s return to the White House to negotiate a ceasefire in Ukraine, a meeting that would be closely watched by world leaders.
During the phone call, Putin discussed the preparations for the Alaska summit with Trump, sharing “information in the context of the upcoming talks with US president Donald Trump,” the Kremlin said.
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