By Bill Pan
Contributing Writer
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has ruled out withdrawing troops from the contested Donbas region as a condition for a cease-fire and peace talks with Russia, warning that such a move would give the latter a strategic advantage for future offensives.
“For Russians, Donbas is a bridgehead for a future new offensive,” Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv on Tuesday, reported national news agency Ukrinform. “Any issue of territories cannot be separated from security guarantees.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin is demanding that Kyiv pull back its forces from Donetsk and Luhansk provinces — which together make up the Donbas region — in exchange for Russia halting advances in other Ukrainian territories.
Parts of Donbas bordering Russia have been held by two pro-Russian separatist republics since 2014, long before the full-scale war broke out in February 2022. After more than three years of heavy fighting, the majority of the region is now under Russian occupation.
According to Zelenskyy, Ukraine still controls roughly 30% of Donetsk province, or about 3,500 square miles, and has established fortified defensive lines and strategic high ground there.
Abandoning these positions, he said, would strip Kyiv of crucial defenses and invite renewed Russian assaults.
“If we leave Donbas today — our fortifications, our terrain, the heights we control — we will clearly open a bridgehead for the Russians to prepare their offensive,” he said.
Zelenskyy’s comments come ahead of a Friday meeting between Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump in Anchorage, Alaska. The summit will mark Putin’s first visit to the United States in a decade and the first in-person meeting between the two leaders since Trump returned to the White House.
Trump has suggested “some swapping of territories to the betterment of both” Russia and Ukraine. While no terms have been officially confirmed, such a deal could involve Ukraine recognizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Russia giving up some of the Ukrainian land it has seized since 2022.
“Russia has occupied a big portion of Ukraine,” Trump said on Monday. “They’ve occupied some very prime territory. We’re going to try and get some of that territory back for Ukraine.”
Trump described the Friday talks as a “feel-out meeting” to gauge the prospects for peace. “If it’s a fair deal, I will reveal it to the European Union leaders and to the NATO leaders and also to President Zelenskyy,” he said. “I may say, ‘lots of luck, keep fighting,’ or I may say we can make a deal.”
The White House reaffirmed on Tuesday that the meeting will be a “listening exercise” for Trump, indicating there will not be an immediate breakthrough in the peace process.
“The goal of this meeting for the president is to walk away with a better understanding of how we can end this war,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press briefing.
“I think the president of the United States getting in the room with the president of Russia, sitting face-to-face rather than speaking over the telephone, will give this president the best indication of how to end this war and where this is headed,” she said.
