Ukraine, sidelined in Trump-Putin summit, fights Russian grab for more territory

Straits Times

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A Ukrainian soldier keeps a lookout for Russian drones in the back of a pickup truck, in the city of Kostyantynivka, Ukraine.
MOSCOW/BRUSSELS - Small bands of Russian soldiers thrust deeper into eastern Ukraine on Aug 12 before a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, which European leaders fear could end in peace terms imposed on an unlawfully shrunken Ukraine.
In one of the most extensive incursions so far this year, Russian troops advanced near the coal-mining town of Dobropillia, part of Mr Putin's campaign to take full control of Ukraine's Donetsk region.
Ukraine's military dispatched reserve troops, saying
they were in difficult combat against Russian soldiers.
Mr Trump has said any peace deal would involve 'some swopping of territories to the betterment of both' Russia and Ukraine, which has up to now depended on the US as its main arms supplier.
But because all the areas being contested lie within Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky and his European Union allies fear that he will face pressure to give up far more than Russia does.
Mr Trump's administration tempered expectations on Aug 12 for major progress towards a ceasefire, calling his meeting on Aug 15 with Mr Putin in Alaska
a 'listening exercise'.
Mr Zelensky and most of his European counterparts have said a lasting peace cannot be secured without Ukraine at the negotiating table, and a deal must comply with international law, Ukraine's sovereignty and its territorial integrity.
They will hold a virtual meeting with Mr Trump on Aug 13 to underscore those concerns before the Putin summit, the first US-Russia summit since 2021.
'An imitated rather than genuine peace will not hold for long and will only encourage Russia to seize even more territory,' Mr Zelensky said in a statement on Aug 12.
Mr Zelensky said Russia must agree to a ceasefire before territorial issues are discussed. He would reject any Russian proposal that
Ukraine pull its troops from the eastern Donbas region and cede its defensive lines.
Asked why Mr Zelensky was not joining the US and Russian leaders at the Alaska summit, a White House spokeswoman said on Aug 12 that the bilateral meeting had been proposed by Mr Putin, and that Mr Trump accepted to get a 'better understanding' of how to end the war.
'Only one party that's involved in this war is going to be present, and so this is for the president to go and to get a more firm and better understanding of how we can hopefully bring this war to an end,' press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
'You need both countries to agree to a deal.'
Mr Trump is open to a trilateral meeting with Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky later, Ms Leavitt said.
Russia advances
Ukraine faces a shortage of soldiers after Russia invaded more than three years ago, easing the path for the latest Russian advances.
'This breakthrough is like a gift to Putin and Trump during the negotiations,' said Mr Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, suggesting it could increase pressure on Ukraine to yield territory under any deal.
Ukraine's military, meanwhile, said it had retaken two villages in the eastern region of Sumy on Aug 11, part of a small reversal in more than a year of slow, attritional Russian gains in the south-east.
Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has mounted a new offensive this year in Sumy after Mr Putin demanded a 'buffer zone' there.
Ukraine and its European allies fear that Mr Trump, keen to claim credit for making peace and seal new business deals with Russia's government, will end up rewarding Mr Putin for his 11 years spent in efforts to seize Ukrainian territory, the last three in open warfare.
European security
European leaders have said Ukraine must be
capable of defending itself if peace and security is to be guaranteed on the continent, and that they are ready to contribute further.
'Ukraine cannot lose this war and nobody has the right to pressure Ukraine into making territorial or other concessions, or making decisions that smack of capitulation,' Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at a government meeting.
'I hope we can convince President Trump about the European position.'
Mr Zelensky has said he and European leaders 'all support President Trump's determination.'
A woman walking past a heavily damaged residential building following a Russian strike, in the town of Bilozerske, in Ukraine's Donetsk region, on Aug 12.
PHOTO: AFP
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Mr Putin's principal ally in Europe, was the only leader not to join the EU's statement of unity. He mocked his counterparts as 'sidelined' and said Russia had already defeated Ukraine.
'The Ukrainians have lost the war. Russia has won this war,' Mr Orban told the 'Patriot' YouTube channel in an interview.
Mr Trump had been recently hardening his stance towards Russia, agreeing to send more US weapons to Ukraine and threatening hefty trade tariffs on buyers of Russian oil in an ultimatum that has now lapsed. REUTERS