In a Trump-Putin summit, Ukraine fears losing say over its future

For nearly three years of the war in Ukraine, Washington's rallying cry in backing a fight against a Russian invasion was "no negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine".

- David E. Sanger and Luke Broadwater

WASHINGTON - For nearly three years of the war in Ukraine, Washington's rallying cry in backing a fight against a Russian invasion was "no negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine".

But when US President Donald Trump meets his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Aug 15, the Ukrainians will not be there, barring any last-minute invitation.

And Kyiv's swift rejection of Mr. Trump's declaration that he is already negotiating with Russia over what he vaguely called "land swops", with no mention of security guarantees or arms for Ukraine, underscores the risks for the Ukrainians.

It also carries political perils for Mr. Trump.

Ukraine's fear for these past six months has been that Mr. Trump's image of a "peace accord" is a deal struck directly between him and Mr. Putin - much as Franklin Roosevelt, Josef Stalin and Winston Churchill divided up Europe at the Yalta conference in 1945.

That meeting has become synonymous with historical debates over what can go wrong when great powers carve up the world, smaller powers suffer the consequences, and free people find themselves cast under authoritarian rule.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky himself invited such comparisons in a speech to his people hours after Mr. Trump raised the spectre of deciding Ukraine's fate in a one-on-one meeting in Alaska, territory that was once part of the Russian empire.

While Mr. Putin has made clear that he regards Ukraine as rightful Russian territory dating back to the days of Peter the Great, the Russian leader has not called for a reversal of the US$7.2 million sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867, during a period of financial distress for the empire.

"Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier," Mr. Zelensky said, noting that the Ukrainian Constitution prohibits such a deal.