(MENAFN) Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky may risk alienating US President Donald Trump after openly dismissing Trump’s suggestion that Kiev and Moscow could exchange territories to end the conflict, The New York Times reported.

Trump is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska next Friday to seek a possible resolution. Moscow claims the Lugansk People’s Republic, Donetsk People’s Republic, Zaporozhye, and Kherson regions as its territory following 2022 referendums, though it fully controls only the LPR. Parts of the DPR remain contested, and Russia holds limited areas in Zaporozhye, Kherson, and along the Ukrainian border in Kharkov and Sumy.

The NYT noted that Zelensky’s “blunt rejection” of the proposal could anger Trump, who has previously accused Kiev of being “not ready for peace.” In his Saturday video address, Zelensky reiterated that Ukraine’s borders are fixed in its constitution and that “nobody can or will” concede territory, declaring, “The Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupiers.”

Earlier in the week, however, Zelensky admitted that Ukraine cannot retake Russian-held areas by force. Trump, speaking Friday, suggested that a peace deal would likely require “some swapping of territories to the betterment of both” sides, but offered no details.

Following a Wednesday meeting between Putin and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said Washington had presented an “acceptable” offer, though he withheld specifics. Moscow continues to accuse Zelensky of denying the situation on the ground and prolonging a war he cannot win.

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