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Certain countries are poised to make “titanic efforts” to prevent peace between Russia and Ukraine, Russia’s investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev has warned.
President Trump has scheduled peace talks to take place in Alaska this Friday, after announcing that Russia and Ukraine are close to a ceasefire deal that could bring to an end the three-and-a-half-year conflict.
Although the specifics of the deal have yet to be announced, President Trump has suggested Ukraine will have to surrender territory to Russia to achieve peace.
Dmitriev warned in a post on Telegram that there will be attempts to sabotage a deal by countries that want the war to continue.
“Undoubtedly, a number of countries interested in continuing the conflict will make titanic efforts to disrupt the planned meeting between President Putin and President Trump.”
Although Dmitriev did not specify which countries, he said their “efforts” will consist of “provocations and disinformation.”
It is being reported that the White House is now considering making the talks trilateral by inviting Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The President remains open to a trilateral summit with both leaders. Right now, the White House is planning the bilateral meeting requested by President Putin,” a senior White House official told NewsNation’s Libbey Dean on Saturday.
Zelensky has reiterated his opposition to any concessions of land to Russia, as President Putin and President Trump are set to meet in Alaska next week.
While addressing reporters at the White House on Friday, President Trump said there will be “some swapping of territories for the betterment of both.” He had just announced that Russia and Ukraine were close to agreeing a ceasefire deal that could resolve the three-and-a-half-year war between them
On Saturday morning, however, President Zelensky said Ukraine would not violate its constitution and cede land to Russia.
“Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupiers,” Zelensky said.
In a video posted to his Telegram channel on Saturday, Zelensky said any decisions made without Ukraine would be unworkable.
“They will not achieve anything. These are stillborn decisions. They are unworkable decisions. And we all need real and genuine peace,” Zelensky said.
President Putin claims four Ukrainian regions—Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson—as well as the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. At present, his forces do not fully control all territory in the four regions he claims.
