Skepticism over Russia-Ukraine peace deal ahead of Trump-Putin summit
發佈日期: 2025-08-10 21:24
TVB News
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been canvassing support from his European allies after it emerged that U.S. President Donald Trump will meet Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
Trump indicated that a peace deal for the Russia-Ukraine war may require Kyiv to give up some of the land captured by Moscow's forces in the early months of the war.
Zelenskyy said he rejects gifting Russia any territory with European countries saying talks must include Kyiv.
The moment hopes are raised of a potential solution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, reality sets in.
This Friday's Alaska meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is outwardly a major step forward in efforts to end the three-and-a-half-year war.
But many in Europe, which has long sided with Ukraine, believe a U.S.-backed "peace deal" is ostensibly giving Putin what he wants -- the four eastern provinces his forces annexed months after the February 2022 invasion.
A stunning turnaround after a seemingly frustrated Trump threatened Putin with more sanctions and tariffs if he failed to meet an August 8th ceasefire deadline.
Analyst Nigel Gould-Davies, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said: "What we've seen over the past 24 hours is an absolutely extraordinary development. And as that deadline approached, his language became very specific, and really unprecedentedly threatening towards Russia. These things called secondary tariffs, sanctions, very deprecating remarks about the Russian economy.
"And what have we seen? An astonishing U-turn, it would seem. The most emphatic retreat from a Trumpian deadline. Rather than impose any of the pain, make good on any of his threats, he appears to have rewarded Putin in this extraordinary way by agreeing to a summit."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is forced to walk a line between thanking the U.S. for its peace efforts and pushing back against Trump's position that Kyiv may have to cede territory to Russia.
He said that decisions coming out of the summit are "stillborn" without Ukraine input.
And he is standing his ground on rejecting any settlement that forces Ukraine to lose all or parts of the provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Russia also wants to keep the Crimea Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
Meanwhile, another funeral was held for a fallen soldier in Ukraine. And as the deaths mount on both sides, fierce fighting continues along the more than 1,000-kilometre front line with Russian forces holding around a fifth of Ukraine's territory.
