Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky highlighted a wave of Russian drone strikes on four regions of his country on Monday, hours before he is expected to meet with American President Donald Trump to broker a peace agreement with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.
Putin met with Trump personally on Friday, flying into Alaska for a private engagement that lasted about three hours. The engagement did not result in any publicly known substantive commitments on Putin’s part to stop the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which he launched in February 2022, or return any of the land Russia has colonized in Ukraine since 2014.
Both parties nonetheless expressed optimism that the summit helped reset relations between Moscow and Washington and opened the door to more substantial negotiations to end hostilities.
Trump called Zelensky immediately after his summit with Putin and has arranged for both the Ukrainian president and several leaders of Ukraine’s European allies to visit the White House. On Monday morning, Trump wrote a message on his website Truth Social declaring that Zelensky had the power to stop the war by accepting multiple concessions to the Russian regime.
Zelensky published his own message on social media on Monday: a video showcasing various airstrikes on Ukrainian civilian targets with a message arguing that Russia, not Ukraine, has the power to stop the hostilities immediately.
“Everyone seeks dignified peace and true security. And at this very moment, the Russians are attacking Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, the Sumy region, and Odesa, destroying residential buildings and our civilian infrastructure,” Zelensky noted in a message accompanying the video.
“Russians are deliberately killing people, particularly children. As of now, seven people have been killed as a result of the drone strike in Kharkiv, the youngest being a girl who is only a year and a half old, and dozens have been injured, including children,” he continued. “In Zaporizhzhia, missile strikes injured 20 people and killed three. My condolences go out to all of the victims’ families and loved ones.”
“Putin will commit demonstrative killings to maintain pressure on Ukraine and Europe, as well as to humiliate diplomatic efforts,” Zelensky asserted. “That is precisely why we are seeking assistance to put an end to the killings.”
Zelensky discouraged relevant parties from “rewarding” Russia “for its participation in this war.”
“The war must be ended. And it is Moscow that must hear the word: ‘Stop,'” he concluded.
Zelensky is in Washington and expected to meet with Trump in person later today. Following his meeting with the American president, Trump is also expected to host a parade of European leaders including the head of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen as well as French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Prime Ministers Keir Starmer and Giorgia Meloni of Britain and Italy, respectively.
Zelensky’s message appeared to be a rebuttal to Trump claiming on Monday Zelensky has the power to unilaterally end the war.
“President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, “or he can continue to fight. Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!”
Trump in turn appeared to be pressuring Zelensky to accept Ukraine losing its claim to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia invaded and colonized in 2014, in response to the Ukrainian president highlighting in remarks on Sunday that the Ukrainian constitution limits his ability to agree to ceding land.
“The constitution of Ukraine makes it impossible, impossible to give up territory or trade land,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky also emphasized that Putin had not called off bombing campaigns over Ukraine, making any negotiation difficult.
“Putin has many demands, but we do not know all of them. And if there are really as many as we heard, then it will take time to go through them all,” he said. “It’s impossible to do this under the pressure of weapons. So, it’s necessary to ceasefire and work quickly on a final deal.”
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The Russian government has remained largely mum following the Trump-Putin engagement in Alaska on Friday. That meeting was largely a friendly one in which Putin effusively thanked the United States for its cooperation during World War II and honored the fallen at a military cemetery in Anchorage.
Putin also credited Trump with maintaining peace in the region, claiming that he would not have launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 if Trump had remained president.
The far-left New York Times outlet claimed this weekend that Putin offered to write a letter promising not to attack Ukraine or the rest of Russia in exchange for being granted full control of Ukraine’s Donbass region, where Russian “separatists” have waged war against the Ukrainian government since at least 2014.
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