Russia continues in eastern Ukraine, such as fears of the loom in Europe during the Trump-Putin meeting

On Tuesday, small bands of Russian soldiers have deepened in eastern Ukraine before a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, who, according to European leaders, could end with peace terms imposed on an illegal reduction in Ukraine.

In one of the most extensive incursions so far this year, Russian troops have advanced near the Dobropillia coal extraction city, which is part of Putin’s campaign to take total control of the Ukraine Donetsk region. Ukraine soldiers sent reserve troops, saying that they were in difficult combat against Russian soldiers.

Trump said that any peace agreement would imply “an exchange of territories towards improving” Russia and Ukraine, which so far depends on the United States as the main provider of weapons.

But because all the disputed areas are in Ukraine, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his allies of the European Union fear to put pressure to abandon much more than Russia.

Trump administration tempered expectations on Tuesday for major progress towards a ceasefire, calling for its Friday meeting with Putin in Alaska a “listening exercise”.

In this line, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the president wanted to directly adapt Putin.

“The president has the impression: ‘Listen, I have to look at this guy through the table. I need to see him face to face. I need to hear him one against one. I have to do an assessment by looking at him,” Rubio Radi Radio told New York on Tuesday.

Zelenskyy and most of its European counterparts declared that a sustainable peace could not be obtained without Ukraine at the negotiating table and that an agreement must comply with international law, the sovereignty of Ukraine and its territorial integrity. They will hold a virtual meeting with Trump on Wednesday to highlight these concerns.

“Substantial and productive discussions about us without we will not work,” said Zelenskyy in an interview on Tuesday with Newsnation. “They are possible, but they will not be accepted in practice. Just as I can’t say anything about another state or make decisions.”

The Ukrainian chief said Russia should accept a cease-fire before the territorial questions were discussed. He would reject any Russian proposal according to which Ukraine withdraws his troops from the eastern region of Donbas and would give in his defensive lines.

Trump is looking for a “better understanding”

When he was asked why Zelenskyy did not join at the top of Alaska, a White House spokesman said on Tuesday that the bilateral meeting had been proposed by Putin and that Trump had accepted to obtain a “better understanding” in the way of ending war.

“It is for the president to go and better understand how we hope that this war can end,” the press secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists.

Trump is open to a trilateral meeting with Putin and Zelenskyy later, Leavitt said.

Look | Trump, Putin to meet in Alaska:

Trump, Putin should meet in Alaska for other ceasefire negotiations | Hanomansing tonight

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to meet in Alaska for the first American summit since 2021. He has come after a time limit for cease-fire for Putin to accept a ceasefire from Ukraine was adopted on Friday.

Ukraine faces a shortage of troops, attenuating the path of the latest Russian advances.

The army of Ukraine, on the other hand, said that it had taken up two villages in the Eastern region of Sumy on Monday, part of a small overthrow in more than a year of slow and attritional Russian gains in the Southeast.

Russia, which launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, set up a new offensive this year in Sumy after Putin demanded a “buffer zone” there.

Ukraine and its European allies fear that Trump, eager to claim the merit of having made peace and sealing new affairs with the Russian government, will end up rewarding Putin for her years spent in efforts to grasp Ukrainian territory.

European leaders have said that Ukraine should be able to defend themselves if peace and security should be guaranteed on the continent and that they are ready to contribute more.

“Ukraine cannot lose this war, and no one has the right to put pressure on Ukraine to make territorial or other concessions, or make decisions that felt capitulation,” said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk at a government meeting.

“I hope we can convince President Trump about the European position.”