Zelensky excludes the famous Donbas region while the Russians make new progress

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would reject any Russian proposal to abandon the Donbas region in exchange for a ceasefire, warning that it could be used as a springboard for future attacks.

On Friday, Zelensky spoke before a meeting between American president Donald Trump and the Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

Trump insisted that any peace agreement would imply “an exchange of territories” and could see Russia taking the whole region of the Donbas and keeping Crimea.

Meanwhile, Moscow’s troops continued their summer offensive, making a sudden push near the eastern Ukrainian city of Dobropillia and advancing 10 km (six miles) in a short time.

Zelensky admitted that the advance had taken place in “several places”, but said that kyiv would soon destroy the units involved in the attack.

No official details have emerged on Vladimir Putin’s requests when he meets Donald Trump in Anchorage on Friday.

The Donbas – Composed of the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk – have been partly occupied by Russia since 2014.

Moscow now holds almost all Luhansk and around 70% Donetsk, but addressing journalists on Tuesday, Zelensky reaffirmed that Ukraine would reject any proposal to leave the Donbas.

“If we are withdrawing from donbas today – our fortifications, our land, the heights that we control – we will clearly open a bridgehead so that the Russians prepare an offensive,” he said.

In his night speech on Tuesday, Zelensky also said that Moscow was preparing new offensives on three parts of the front – Zaporizhzhia, Pokrovsk and Novopavlov.

Last week, Trump said that there would be “an exchange of territories towards improving” Russia and Ukraine – concerns aroused in kyiv and through Europe that Moscow could be authorized to redraw the borders of Ukraine by force.

Russia currently controls just under 20% of the Ukrainian territory.

The White House said on Tuesday that the talks in Alaska would be a “listening exercise” for Trump and added that having it and Putin sitting in the same room would give the American president “the best indication on how to end this war”.

It follows that Trump describing the summit as a “feeling of feeling of execution” on Monday, seeming to alleviate the expectations that the meeting on Friday could bring Ukraine and Russia closer to peace.

When he announced the summit last week, Trump seemed certain that the meeting could lead to concrete stages towards peace.

“I think my instinct really tells me that we have a chance,” he said.

But Ukrainian President Zelensky again expressed serious doubts that talks could lead to a positive result for kyiv, who was excluded from the summit. “I don’t know what they will talk to us without us,” he said.

Zelensky has avoided criticizing Trump, but in recent days, his frustration of being sidelined has become apparent, and Tuesday, he said that the choice of Alaska as a “personal victory” for Putin.

“He comes out of isolation because they meet him on American territory,” he said.

On Wednesday, Zelensky is expected to join a virtual meeting with Donald Trump, EU leaders, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and NATO chief Mark Rutte.

All the parties will try to convince Trump of the need not to be influenced by Putin when the two meet at the top organized in a hurry.