Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump ‘open to’ Zelensky attending Alaska summit with Putin – UK Times

Donald Trump understands symbolism and imperial delusions, so Alaska is a fitting location for his meeting with Vladimir Putin on Friday. The US president will know that in Mr Putin’s eyes, Alaska ought to be Russian territory, sold in a moment of weakness by Alexander II.

Just as, in Mr Trump’s mind, Canada and Greenland ought to be part of the United States.

The theatre of the summit, then, is all set. But some of the cast will be missing. By agreeing to a meeting of just the two of them, Mr Trump appears to be convening a conspiracy to carve up Ukraine in the absence of its leader, Volodymyr Zelensky.

On the streets of Kyiv, reactions to the idea of Ukraine ceding territory to Russia ranged from scepticism to quiet resignation.

“It may not be capitulation, but it would be a loss,” said Ihor Usatenko, a 67-year-old pensioner, who said he would consider ceding territory “on condition for compensation and, possibly, some reparations.”

Anastasia Yemelianova, 31, said she was torn: “Honestly, I have two answers to that question. The first is as a person who loves her country. I don’t want to compromise within myself,” she told the AP. “But seeing all these deaths and knowing that my mother is now living in Nikopol under shelling and my father is fighting, I want all this to end as soon as possible.”

Others, like Svitlana Dobrynska, whose son died fighting, rejected outright concessions but supported halting combat to save lives.

“We don’t have the opportunity to launch an offensive to recapture our territories,” the 57-year-old pensioner said, “But to prevent people from dying, we can simply stop military operations, sign some kind of agreement, but not give up our territories.”

A Russian FPV (first-person-view) drone struck a civilian bus in the suburbs of Kherson on Saturday morning, killing two people and injuring 19 others, local authorities have said.

The strike took place around 8am local time. Sixteen people were taken to hospital, with two in serious condition. The victims, aged between 23 and 83, suffered shrapnel and blast injuries.

As police recovered the victims’ bodies from the bus, a second Russian FPV drone hit the area, injuring three officers with concussions, according to Ukraine’s National Police.

The attack comes amid escalating Russian strikes across Kherson Oblast. Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said 36 settlements were hit in the past day, leaving one person dead and three injured, including a child.

Ukrainian authorities have been evacuating hundreds of residents from the Korabel district of Kherson city, which has been cut off from the rest of the city after Russian forces heavily damaged the only bridge connecting the area last week.

According to Politico, only 600 of the 1,800 residents remain in the island district, with at least 200 set to be evacuated on Friday. “Russians continue to attack the bridge and the area during evacuation,” said Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, deputy head of the Kherson regional administration.

Before Donald Trump announced his summit with Vladimir Putin, his efforts to pressure Russia into stopping the fighting had delivered no progress.

The Kremlin’s bigger army is slowly advancing deeper into Ukraine at great cost in troops and armour while it relentlessly bombards Ukrainian cities.

Exasperated that Putin did not heed his calls to stop bombing Ukrainian cities, Trump had moved up an ultimatum to impose additional sanctions on Russia and introduce secondary tariffs targeting countries that buy Russian oil if the Kremlin did not move toward a settlement.

The deadline was Friday. But the White House did not answer questions that evening about possible sanctions after Trump announced the meeting with Putin.

Dozens of flights were delayed at Sochi Airport on Saturday following reported drone attacks in southern Russia’s Krasnodar Krai, according to a report by The Kyiv Independent.

Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences shot down 10 drones over the region. In response, airspace over Sochi was closed twice on Friday, with restrictions continuing into the next day.

By Saturday morning, 57 flights had been delayed and one cancelled, according to independent outlet Meduza, citing data from a flight-tracking app.

The disruption extended beyond Sochi, affecting airports in Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Novokuznetsk, and Norilsk. Around 1,000 passengers were left waiting, according to Russia’s West Siberian Transport Prosecutor’s Office.

Ukraine has not commented on the reported drone strikes, but Russia regularly grounds flights or shuts airspace in response to Ukrainian drone activity. Last month, at least one Russian airport faced temporary closure nearly every day.

Senior Ukrainian officials met with foreign secretary David Lammy and the US vice president JD Vance on Saturday for security talks at Chevening House in Kent, ahead of Donald Trump’s upcoming summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

Andriy Yermak, head of Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, and Ukraine’s national security and defence council secretary Rustem Umerov attended the meeting, along with European national security advisers.

Lammy posted photos from the gathering, describing it as part of efforts to support a just peace for Ukraine.

The hours-long talks focused on Trump’s proposed peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. A US official said the meeting produced “significant progress” towards Trump’s goal of ending the war, though no concrete agreements were announced.

In his evening address, Zelensky called the discussions “constructive”.

“All our messages were conveyed. Our arguments are being heard. The risks are being taken into account. The path to peace for Ukraine must be determined together – and only together – with Ukraine. This is fundamental.”

French president Emmanuel Macron has said Ukraine’s future must not be decided without the involvement of Ukrainians and Europeans, ahead of Donald Trump’s planned summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.

Any deal between Trump and Putin is expected to involve potential land concessions, which Volodymyr Zelensky has firmly rejected.

In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, Macron wrote: “Ukraine’s future cannot be decided without the Ukrainians, who have been fighting for their freedom and security for over three years now.”

He added that Europe must also be part of any peace solution, as its own security is at stake.

“We remain determined to support Ukraine, working in a spirit of unity and building on the work undertaken within the framework of the Coalition of the Willing,” he said.

Along-overdue summit between the presidents of the United States and the Russian Federation to discuss peace in Ukraine, where nuclear war has been threatened, must be seen as a historic moment for optimism.

Except that from London to Langley, Berlin, Canberra and Tokyo, intelligence chiefs will be on tenterhooks wondering whether this is another occasion resembling the meeting between an agent and his handler.

There’s no evidence that Donald Trump works for Vladimir Putin. But there is ample evidence that the US president favours Putin’s agenda. And that he has done all he can to hobble Ukraine while it attempts to defend itself against a Russian invasion of Europe’s eastern flank.

The Independent’s world affairs editor Sam Kiley reports: