(Adnkronos) – Only Kiev can decide the fate of Ukrainian territory, Italy’s foreign minister said Monday, after US president Donald Trump denied media reports he pressured Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky at a tense meeting on Friday to give up the entire eastern Donbas region to Russia to end the 43-month war.
“Only Ukraine can decide what to do with its territory, it is not up to us,” Tajani told reporters on the sidelines of the MED9 summit in Portoroz, Slovenia.
Trump had “denied certain statements attributed to him regarding territorial concessions by Ukraine” in negotiations for a peace deal with Russia, Tajani recalled.
‘We support the American efforts towards mediation and at the same time we continue to support Zelensky and Ukraine so that it can defend itself and so that at this stage there is no cession of territory,” Tajani added.
Zelensky said in an interview with NBC News on Sunday that he was ready to join Trump and Russia’s president Donald Trump at their upcoming summit in Budapest, Hungary. Trump said after phone talks with Putin on Thursday the summit would take place “within the next two weeks”.
When asked if he would insist on travelling to Budapest for the Trump-Putin meeting, Zelenskyy said he told the US leader: “I am ready.”
“How can there be deals without us about us?” Zelensky told NBC News.
