"If you're not at the table, you're on the menu", so the famous saying in international diplomacy goes.
As Donald Trump prepares to meet Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, there is concern in Kyiv and other European capitals that they could negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine over the head of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is not invited to the talks.
European leaders – who will also be absent – have sought to present a united front with Ukraine. They issued a statement saying that "the path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine", and that "international borders must not be changed by force".
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What did the commentators say?
The "worst-case scenario" for Kyiv and Europe is that Trump and Putin reach an agreement on what the US president calls "land swaps". This would, "in reality, mean Ukraine ceding large swaths of its territory permanently to Russia", said Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times. The deal would then be "presented to Ukraine as a fait accompli".
While Ukraine want "agreement on a ceasefire – with the threat of secondary sanctions on Russia if Putin restarts the war" before any discussion on territory, it has to be realistic about the state of the war as things stand.
Russia now occupies nearly a fifth of the country and this year has slowly but steadily been utilising its superior manpower and supplies to make territorial gains.
Understanding this, Zelenskyy has told European leaders ahead of Friday's summit that while giving up Ukrainian land held by Kyiv remains a red line – and something prohibited by the constitution – Ukrainian territory in Russia's control could be on the table. This represents a "softening" of his negotiating position and "would mean freezing the front line where it is and handing Russia de facto control of the territory it occupies in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea", said The Telegraph.
"The critical distinction is between de facto and de jure concessions of territory," said Rachman. A legal recognition is "rightly unacceptable" to Kyiv, but an informal "recognition of Russian occupation of some territory as a brutal reality – in the context of a broader peace deal – may be necessary".
If it can maintain its independence and democratic institutions, then Ukraine "making some de facto territorial concessions might be a painful but acceptable concession".
Whether this outcome is acceptable to Putin is another matter entirely. "While the Kremlin's propaganda machine would be able to spin such relatively modest gains as a glorious victory to Russia's people, Putin would not be able to fool himself," said The Times.
As the president and his allies "have made clear on multiple occasions, Russia is not just fighting for land; it is seeking to eliminate Ukraine as an independent state".
Putin's "unchanging goal is to subjugate Kyiv, however long it takes and by whatever means necessary".
What next?
Trump "remains wedded to the notion that 'land swapping' will shape any deal to end the war in Ukraine", said Sky News.
He has said that Friday's meeting with Putin is to "feel out" what the "parameters" are for a future ceasefire. This is a "strategic preemption perhaps, setting expectations low, and preparing the public for failure".
But, "having played the ultimate card of a presidential summit, the only result that counts will be the full and complete ceasefire that President Trump has long demanded and that Ukraine accepted five months ago", said CNN.
"Short of that, the summit will be a failure with peace further out of reach for the foreseeable future."
-
Will the mystery of MH370 be solved?Today’s Big Question New search with underwater drones could finally locate wreckage of doomed airliner
-
The biggest astronomy stories of 2025In the spotlight From moons, to comets, to pop stars in orbit
-
Why are micro-resolutions more likely to stick?In the Spotlight These smaller, achievable goals could be the key to building lasting habits
-
Why is Trump’s alleged strike on Venezuela shrouded in so much secrecy?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION Trump’s comments have raised more questions than answers about what his administration is doing in the Southern Hemisphere
-
Vance’s ‘next move will reveal whether the conservative movement can move past Trump’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
What have Trump’s Mar-a-Lago summits achieved?Today’s big question Zelenskyy and Netanyahu meet the president in his Palm Beach ‘Winter White House’
-
Biggest political break-ups and make-ups of 2025The Explainer From Trump and Musk to the UK and the EU, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a round-up of the year’s relationship drama
-
Donald Trump’s squeeze on VenezuelaIn Depth The US president is relying on a ‘drip-drip pressure campaign’ to oust Maduro, tightening measures on oil, drugs and migration
-
Trump appears numerous times in new Epstein batchSpeed Read
-
Danes ‘outraged’ at revived Trump Greenland pushSpeed Read
-
‘Tension has been building inside Heritage for a long time’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
