Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday accused Valdimir Putin of trying to ‘legalise the occupation’ of Kyiv’s territories amid the ongoing attempts to reach a peace deal between the two nations.In a post on X, Zelenskyy slammed “Putin’s tactics” and said that Russia must end the war it started.“Everyone can clearly see Putin’s tactics. He fears sanctions and is doing everything to bail on them. He wants to exchange a pause in the war, in the killings, for the legalisation of the occupation of our land,” Zelenskyy said.“He wants to gain territorial spoils for the second time already. But, now we will not allow his second attempt, Zelensky said, noting what happened with Crimea,” he added.The Ukrainian president further said that Trump has the levers and the determination, stressing that Ukraine has supported every proposal of Trump’s, starting back in February.“I have not heard any partners express doubts about America’s ability to ensure that the war ends. The President of the United States has the levers and the determination. Ukraine has supported all of President Trump’s proposals, starting back in February. Ceasefire, all formats have been supported,” he said in his video message.Earlier Saturday, Zelenskyy criticized the planned Trump-Putin summit set for Friday in Alaska, insisting that “any decisions that are without Ukraine are at the same time decisions against peace. They will not bring anything. These are dead decisions. They will never work.”“We will not allow this second attempt to partition Ukraine. Knowing Russia, where there is a second, there will be a third. That is why we stand firm on clear Ukrainian positions. We must end the war with a dignified peace, based on a clear and reliable security architecture,” he said.Trump announced on Friday that he would meet Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15 to discuss a potential peace deal, likely to include possible land swaps.“We’re going to get some back, and we’re going to get some switched,” he said at an event at the White House.. “There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.”Trump did not clarify which territories could be exchanged, as Ukraine holds no Russian land, any swap would involve giving up Ukrainian territory in exchange for areas now under Russian control, reports the New York Times.“It seems entirely logical for our delegation to fly across the Bering Strait simply, and for such an important and anticipated summit of the leaders of the two countries to be held in Alaska,” said Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, on Saturday, in a statement posted to the Kremlin’s news channel.A Russian drone strike on a minibus in the suburbs of Kherson killed two people and injured 16 others, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Saturday. In the Zaporizhzhia region, another drone attack on a car killed two people, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov.Russia’s defence ministry said that its air defence system destroyed 97 Ukrainian drones over Russia and the Black Sea overnight, along with another 21 on Saturday morning.
