Anastasia Ryabokon14:41, 11.08.25

Valeriy Chaly believes that the Ukrainian president should not go to Alaska in order to avoid helping to legalize the war criminal Putin.

The meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in Alaska will not be a breakthrough and will change little for Ukraine. It will perhaps only contribute to the personal interests of Trump and Putin. This was stated by the Chairman of the Board of the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center, the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States in 2015-2019 Valeriy Chaly on the air of Ukrainian Radio .

In response to a question about the possible demand of American allies to make concessions to the occupiers and “exchange” Ukrainian lands, he said that this was impossible:

“Our president responded to this. Concessions in territory are impossible for Ukraine.”

He added that in theory, an exchange of territories between the two states is possible, but the procedure is clearly spelled out. For example, neighboring states can exchange part of a village through which the border passes for a territory of the corresponding size.

“But in our case, we are not talking about an exchange, but about Ukraine giving up territories that are legally secured. This will never happen. As for temporary occupation, there is indeed an understanding that by the end of the year, for example, it is impossible to de-occupy all Ukrainian lands. This is a question of a different plane,” he said.

He specified that now it is necessary to discuss the regime of occupation of Ukrainian lands by Russia at the international level. It is necessary to make impossible the removal of Ukrainian children, the conscription of Ukrainians into the Russian occupation army, and so on.

“These are the issues that we can talk about, understanding that we are not ready to de-occupy our territories in military terms. That is, from an international legal point of view, this is not a question of territories, but a question of the occupation regime. We need to transfer it to this plane,” Chaly said.

The diplomat added that at the current stage it is important for Ukraine not to play along with the imitation of the negotiation process. He says that if President Volodymyr Zelensky visits Alaska, where Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will meet, this will be an additional legitimization of Putin.

“The level of Ukrainian subjectivity, which was won by our Armed Forces at the cost of lives, is not such that our president would run around on backup dancers. Ukraine has subjectivity, and it would be good for the president’s representative to publicly state that all this is insinuation and that the president is not going to go anywhere until we understand that there is a comprehensive solution with security guarantees for Ukraine,” he emphasized.

Chaly believes that the negotiation process is not ready. He predicts that the meeting in Alaska will end only with “bilateral interests, even some personal ones, of Putin and Trump.”

According to him, the situation could be changed by changing the position of China, which can influence Russia. He also advised continuing to strengthen Ukraine’s position, including long-range strikes on Russian territory.

“Long-range strikes by our drones continue – and this is right. We need long-range missiles, and believe me – 50-100 Ukrainian ballistic missiles towards Moscow would seriously change the negotiating position. Even in the conditions we are talking about,” added Valeriy Chaly.

(C)UNIAN 2025