Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that he would meet with his United States counterpart in Alaska to discuss a settlement in Ukraine triggered a diplomatic flurry between Ukraine and its European allies – all of whom have been left out of the discussion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Putin is not earnest about peace as the Russian army continues to pound away at Ukraine.

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“There is no indication whatsoever that the Russians have received signals to prepare for a post-war situation,” Zelenskyy said, citing recent intelligence, in his Monday evening address to the Ukrainian people. “On the contrary, they are redeploying their troops and forces in ways that suggest preparations for new offensive operations.”

European leaders have also warned US President Donald Trump against trading away Ukrainian land.

“Until Russia agrees to a full and unconditional ceasefire, we should not even discuss any concessions,” said Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief.

On Wednesday, EU states forming the Coalition of the Willing, a military grouping including some of Europe’s largest militaries, warned that “international borders must not be changed by force” and that if Russia did not agree to an immediate ceasefire, more economic sanctions should be imposed on Moscow.

Putin and Trump will talk one-on-one first, with only translators present, before participating in meetings with delegates, a Russian official said on Thursday, adding that there will be a joint news conference later on in the day.

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As Russia confirmed the Alaska meeting, its army pounded away at Ukraine, seizing the village of Yablunivka in the eastern Donetsk region on Saturday.

Some 535 Russian drones and missiles rained on Ukraine during the week of August 7-13. Ukraine intercepted just under two-thirds of them; and Moscow’s forces launched eight missiles against Ukraine, five of which got through its defences.

The Alaska summit

Putin aide Yuri Ushakov announced the Alaska summit on August 7, a day after Putin met with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff and suggested it.

The statement led to immediate confusion within the Trump White House. An unnamed administration official denied it, saying a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting would have to happen first.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio seemed to agree, telling the Fox entertainment network, “Obviously, the Ukrainians have a right to be part of this process. We have to find a compromise between both sides so that the chief mediator, President Trump, can step in and make it happen.”

But on Monday, Trump said that Zelenskyy was not invited to Alaska. Nor were Ukraine’s European allies.

Trump has stoked fears before among Ukrainian and European officials that he would elbow them aside to partition Ukraine in a great power deal with Russia.

During Monday’s news conference, Trump offered conflicting information about whether that was still his intention, on the one hand saying, “I am going to call up President Zelenskyy and the European leaders, right after the meeting, and tell them what kind of a deal…,” then interrupting himself and saying, “I’m not going to make a deal. It’s not up to me to make a deal”.

Both Trump and Rubio intimated that Putin had shared with them his red lines.

“I think for maybe the first time since this administration began, we have concrete examples of what Russia might require to end the war,” Rubio said, without giving details of the Kremlin’s demands.

“There will be some land swapping going on,” Trump said. “I know that through Russia and through conversations with everybody.”

Zelenskyy publicly pitted himself against the Alaska summit. In July alone, he said, Russia dropped more than 5,100 guided aerial bombs, more than 3,800 drones and nearly 260 missiles on Ukraine.

Ukrainian Commander in Chief Oleksandr Syrskii said that during July, Russian forces “tried to advance along almost the entire line of contact”.

He also revealed that the Russian armed forces were managing to out-recruit their losses.

Despite sustaining heavy losses of 33,000 troops last month, Syrskii said, “The enemy is increasing its grouping by 9,000 people every month.”

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Russia plans to form 10 new divisions by the end of the year, two of which have already been created, said Syrskii.

“Therefore,” he concluded, “we have no choice but to continue mobilisation measures, improve combat training, and strengthen the drone component of our troops”.

What’s Putin’s game?

Zelenskyy on Saturday said that Putin wanted the part of the Donetsk region that Russia does not occupy, in addition to keeping the Luhansk region.

Bloomberg on Friday cited unnamed sources as confirming that Russia had made this demand for Ukraine’s east.

“He was allowed to take Crimea, and this led to the occupation of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” Zelenskyy said on Saturday, referring to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in January 2014, and his open support for pro-Moscow separatists in Ukraine’s east. “We will not allow this second attempt to partition Ukraine.”

Russia claims all of Luhansk and Donetsk, as well as the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, but only controls Luhansk. Roughly a quarter of the other three regions remain in Kyiv’s hands.

The free portion of Donetsk is particularly important, said the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, because it contains a 50km (30-miles) long “fortress belt” of heavily fortified cities: Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhivka and Konstyantynivka.

Seizing them would be a “multi-year effort”, the ISW said, because Ukraine had been investing in their defence since recapturing them from Russian control in 2014.

Similarly, the city of Zaporizhzhia, which lies in the unoccupied portion of the region, has been heavily fortified, and the unoccupied part of Kherson is separated from the Russian front line by the wide Dnipro river, the ISW said.

Ceding all these territories to Russia would weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend its remaining areas, the ISW said.

“Potential Ukrainian defensive lines in this area would run through open fields, and natural obstacles such as the Oskil and Siverskyi Donets rivers are too far east to serve as defensive positions,” it said.

On Saturday, Ukraine and the EU presented a plan to US officials outlining mutual territorial concessions and NATO membership for what remained of Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Ukraine’s deep strikes

Putin has in the past suggested a partial ceasefire on deep strikes, while preserving front-line hostilities.

Some observers have suggested that this would suit Russia because Ukraine has been successful at interdicting its supply lines and wearing down its defence industrial base and energy infrastructure.

On Saturday, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said a long-range strike set fire to a Russian drone warehouse in the Republic of Tatarstan, where Russia has built a large factory producing Iranian-designed Shahed drones.

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency also said that sabotage operations had caused explosions at a Russian anti-aircraft missile base in Afipsky, in the Krasnodar Krai border region.

Ukraine also claimed to have struck oil refineries in Saratov and the Komi Republic on Sunday.