Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin is preparing for new offensives ahead of Trump peace summit, Zelensky warns

Ahead of the summit in Alaska on Friday, US president Donald Trump suggested that a peace deal could include “some swapping of territories”.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Trump said: “There’ll be some land swapping going on.”

“I know that through Russia and through conversations with everybody, to the good of Ukraine,” he said. He said Russia had occupied some “very prime territory” but “we’re going to try to get some of that territory back.”

Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that any concessions to Russia would not persuade it to stop fighting and more pressure needed to be exerted on the Kremlin.

He urged countries to keep their sanctions against Russia in place until Ukraine receives security guarantees.

“Russia refuses to stop the killings, and therefore must not receive any rewards or benefits,” he wrote on X.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has urged the international community to intensify pressure on Russia, accusing Vladimir Putin of dragging out the war and ignoring “numerous demands of the world” to stop the killings.

He said there were 137 combat clashes on the frontline in the past day alone, with Russia “not reducing pressure and not counting its losses”.

On the frontline near Pokrovsk in Donetsk, Ukraine’s 32nd separate mechanised brigade destroyed 209 Russian troops in the past week, Zelensky said yesterday.

Over the same period, Russia launched more than 1,000 air bombs, nearly 1,400 drones and multiple missile strikes on Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s president.

Zelensky said Moscow must face “stronger pressure from the world” and warned against making concessions to the Kremlin.“Concessions do not convince the killer,” he said. “Only really strong protection of life stops the killer.”

Donald Trump has said he expects to know within moments of starting his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska this Friday whether it will be possible to work out a deal to halt the war in Ukraine.

“At the end of that meeting, probably the first two minutes, I’ll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made,” Trump said at a White House press conference that he called to announce plans for a federal takeover of Washington’s police force to help combat crime.

He said he thought Friday’s sitdown with Putin in Alaska would be “really a feel-out meeting”.

Trump added that “it’ll be good, but it might be bad” and predicted he may say, “lots of luck, keep fighting. Or I may say, we can make a deal”.

The US president said that, after his meeting with Putin, “the next meeting will be with Zelensky and Putin” but it could also be a meeting with “Putin and Zelensky and me”.

Vladimir Putin is working on military preparations for new offensive operations in the Ukraine war, Volodymyr Zelensky warned ahead of the US-Russia summit in Alaska on Friday.

Citing reports from Ukraine’s intelligence and military command, Zelensky said: “So far, there is no indication whatsoever that the Russians have received signals to prepare for a post-war situation. On the contrary, they are redeploying their troops and forces in ways that suggest preparations for new offensive operations”.

The Russian president is “definitely not preparing for a ceasefire or an end to the war,” he said.

“Putin is determined only to present a meeting with America as his personal victory and then continue acting exactly as before, applying the same pressure on Ukraine as before,” Zelensky said in his nightly address.