Ukraine Prepared to Cede Territory Held by Russia

Ukraine could agree to stop fighting and cede territory already held by Russia as part of a European-backed plan for peace.

Volodymyr Zelensky told European leaders that they must reject any settlement proposed by Donald Trump in which Ukraine gives up further territory – but that Russia could be allowed to retain some of the land it has taken.

This would mean freezing the front line where it is and handing Russia de facto control of the territory it occupies in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea.

The softening of the negotiating position comes ahead of talks between Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.

“The plan can only be related to the current positions held by the militaries,” a Western official said, characterising a frantic weekend of diplomacy between Kyiv and its allies.

Ukraine and Europe have become increasingly concerned that Trump and Putin could negotiate an end to the long-running war over Zelensky’s head.

“I have many fears and a lot of hope,” Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, said on Monday. He added that US officials had pledged to consult European leaders ahead of the face-to-face talks between Trump and Putin.

Chief among European concerns was a purported peace plan endorsed by Moscow, which included freezing the front lines in south-eastern Ukraine if Kyiv agreed to withdraw from areas of Donetsk and Luhansk that it controls.

European diplomats say there has been no notable change in Putin’s overall war aims, which seek to topple Ukraine’s Western-facing government and replace it with a Moscow-friendly proxy.

Russia is still aiming for the “full capitulation” of Kyiv, including blocking any prospect of Nato membership and demilitarisation, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War, the Washington-based think tank.

On Monday evening, Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said there were no signs Russia was preparing to bring an end to the war despite the looming peace talks.

“On the contrary, they are moving their troops and forces in such a way as to launch new offensive operations,” he said, citing a report from Ukraine’s intelligence.

Ukraine, while seemingly content with ceding some territory, will only agree to a peace settlement that offers robust security guarantees in the form of weapons deliveries and a path to Nato membership.

European capitals have opted to back Kyiv’s vision for any territorial swaps in an attempt to convince Trump that there is diplomatic weight behind a single “Ukraine plus Europe” red line that rejects concessions for Ukrainian-held land.

“Europeans now understand their role as supportive of Ukraine in terms of the diplomatic negotiations,” said the Western official. “It’s a boost for morale, it’s also strengthening the diplomatic positions of Ukraine so that it doesn’t feel alone.”

“For Poland and our partners, it is clear that state borders cannot be changed by force,” Tusk said at a news conference on Monday. “Russia’s war with Ukraine must not bring benefits to the aggressor.”

France’s Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz, of Germany, issued similar statements in support of a hardline approach to territorial concessions over the weekend.

A joint declaration by the leaders of the European Commission, France, Italy, the UK, Poland, and Finland said that “the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations”.

European leaders are expected to hold talks with Trump on Wednesday to make their case to him. On Monday, the US president said he would try to get some territory back for Ukraine during his meeting with Putin in Alaska.

There would be “some swapping, some changes to land”, Trump said, adding: “Russia has occupied a big portion of Ukraine. We’re going to try to get some of that territory back for Ukraine.”

The US president said Friday would be a “feel-out meeting” aimed at urging Russia to stop the war. He added: “We’re going to have a meeting with Vladimir Putin, and at the end of that meeting, probably in the first two minutes, I’ll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made because that’s what I do. I make deals.”

Trump said he could call Zelensky first “out of respect” and then European leaders after the meeting with the Russian president.

None of this excludes the president of Ukraine from taking the tough decision to cede territory already in the hands of Russia’s invasion forces.

European officials believe Zelensky has leeway with a growing number of voters who would stomach surrendering land to Moscow as the price for the end of the war.

Kyiv can little afford to cede further territory, especially in the eastern region of Donetsk, because it would allow Moscow’s forces to freely bypass the fortifications built since the original Donbas war of 2014.

The Ukrainian president would also have to perform a juggling act as he would be blocked by his country’s constitution from ceding territory without a nationwide referendum.

Trump criticised his Ukrainian counterpart over the rejection of concessions, saying on Monday: “I was a little bothered by the fact that Zelensky was saying, ‘Well, I have to get constitutional approval’. I mean, he’s got approval to go into war and kill everybody, but he needs approval to do a land swap?”

Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general, described the decision as a challenge of “how to deal with the factual situation that the Russians are holding, at this moment, Ukrainian territory”.

“Crucially important here is that when it comes to this holding of Ukrainian territory, that there might be a factual situation that they are doing this, but that we can never accept that in a legal sense, in, as this is called, a de jure sense,” he told CBS.

“A part of Ukraine has to be on the table, that any discussion going forward from there will be with Ukrainians deciding on what they want to do in terms.”

Zelensky had previously mooted swapping territory controlled by Ukraine in Russia’s Kursk region. But Moscow’s forces were able to break Kyiv’s hold on the border region, ending that bargaining chip.

The Ukrainian president has also previously acknowledged that his armed forces lack the capabilities needed to reclaim land held by Moscow, but after any settlement, Kyiv could use diplomatic means to return the land to its control.

Russia is currently occupying around 20 per cent of Ukraine’s territory as agreed under Kyiv’s internationally recognised 1991 borders.

In a phone call on Monday, Sir Keir Starmer and Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, welcomed the peace efforts but warned against a deal being “imposed” upon Ukraine.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “They discussed their unwavering support for Ukraine and ongoing work to stop the killing and end Russia’s war of aggression. Both leaders underscored that Ukraine’s future must be one of freedom, sovereignty and self-determination.

“They welcomed continued international efforts, led by President Trump, to bring peace and agreed that this must be built with Ukraine – not imposed upon it. Both leaders agreed they would continue to work closely with President Trump and President Zelensky over the coming days. They agreed to stay in touch.”