There will be no Ukraine-backed concessions to Russia in upcoming peace talks with the United States, Ukraine's president said on Saturday.
There has been conjecture over the past two days that one of the demands to be made by Russian President Valdimir Putin from US President Donald Trump is for concessions of land in the vicinity of eastern Ukraine to become permanent portions of Russia, and that concept doesn't sit well at all with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In a video statement released on Saturday, he said “Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier,” possibly as a response to President Trump saying Friday during a White House event that "We’re going to get some switched. They’ll be some swapping of territories."
Although Mr. Trump didn't specify which territories might be swapped, it's been regarded by political analysts as a given that Russia will do all it can to keep its hard-won portions of territories in the south and east of Ukraine.
Russia partly occupies but has not taken complete control the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
President Trump has threatened Russia with more sanctions unless it agrees soon to at least a framework for peace agreements in the Russia-Ukraine war.