As long as Zelenskyy is frozen out of this week’s Alaska summit, the chances of a ceasefire never mind a lasting peace are remote indeed writes Foreign Editor David Pratt

A country invades its neighbour in an open act of aggression. More than three and a half years of relentless war follow until a much more powerful third party nation comes along and says ceasefire negotiations must begin between the two warring states to end the conflict.

The leader of that third party nation then agrees to meet the leader of the aggressor nation to map out the terms of the ceasefire.

This is then duly presented to the invaded nation’s leader to sign and ratify. At no point is the leader of the invaded country invited to the initial negotiations.

Does that sound like a fair deal to you? Would you imagine that any semblance of a sound and just peace would come of it?

Only the very naïve or those suffering from a bout of the most unrealistic optimism would think so. But that is precisely what US President Donald Trump appears to believe will be the outcome of his meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, when the two men get together next Friday in Alaska to discuss an end to the conflict in Ukraine.

The fact that Trump - even before the meeting takes place - has already said that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would need to cede territory for a deal to be reached, only added insult to injury in the eyes of many Ukrainians given that their leader was frozen out of the Alaska talks.

(Image: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy)

It perhaps came as no real surprise then that yesterday Zelenskyy unequivocally made it clear that Ukraine will not “gift” land to Russia as part of a ceasefire deal.

“The answer to the Ukrainian territorial question already is in the Constitution of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post.

“No one will deviate from this - and no one will be able to. Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier,” he insisted..

Zelenskyy also went on to stress that Ukraine is “ready to work together with President Trump.” But he said that decisions made without Ukraine are “unworkable.”

The dramatic developments of the last few days coinciding as they did on Friday with Trump’s deadline to Putin to stop the fighting or face tough new economic sanctions took many by surprise.

They came too just when Ukraine and its European allies thought that Trump was coming round to their view of the war.

Now, instead, say critics of the move, Trump has effectively handed Putin a diplomatic coup, while others also see dark historic parallels that subsequently went on to have profound implication for the world at the time in the past.

“It looks like Munich 1938, when great powers decide the fate of the victim of the aggression,” said Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of the foreign affairs committee of the Ukrainian parliament and an MP in Zelenskyy’s ruling party.

When the idea of a summit was initially suggested Trump said it would only go ahead if Putin agreed to meet with Zelenskyy, something Kyiv has long called for but been resisted by Moscow.

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