Ukraine presses for ceasefire ahead of Alaska talks

Ukraine pushes Western partners to back its terms as leaders prepare for a potential Alaska summit between Trump and Putin.

Zelenskyy rallies Trump, European allies in setting red lines for Putin summit

Zelenskyy traveled to London on Thursday after a stop in Berlin as Kyiv pressed Western partners to lock in its terms before any peace talks with Moscow. In London he met British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Downing Street's garden to discuss the path toward a potential Alaska summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Kyiv outlined five demands that would shape the talks: a ceasefire before negotiations; Ukraine's right to set the terms and to decide on any territorial concessions based on the current front lines; solid security guarantees with U.S. involvement; and stronger sanctions on Russia if the Alaska meeting fails.

Meanwhile, the war outside the diplomatic room persisted. Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 45 drones and two missiles overnight, with 24 drones shot down and 21 drones hitting 12 locations, including a strike that injured residents in Rostov-on-Don. Russia, for its part, said it shot down 52 Ukrainian drones. Kyiv reported a drone strike on the Volgograd Oil Refinery Plant, highlighting how war keeps pressuring both sides even as diplomacy tries to move ahead.

Zelenskyy’s diplomacy underscores Ukraine’s strategy to bind Western leverage to concrete terms, not vague assurances. By tying talks to a ceasefire and explicit security guarantees, Kyiv seeks to shift the risk of a bad deal away from Kyiv onto Moscow and its backers. The Alaska summit could become a litmus test for whether Western unity can translate into enforceable commitments, or if it remains a flux of statements and sanctions without real enforcement. The challenge is that diplomacy now operates on multiple tracks: public exhortations to pressure Moscow, private negotiations with allies, and the looming threat of renewed attacks that can derail private talks. The real test will be whether Washington and European capitals can translate rhetoric into credible, verifiable steps that shift the frontline dynamics on the ground.

Highlights

The next moves will reveal whether diplomacy can outpace a stubborn war machine