Ukraine’s Troops Helped Push Putin’s ‘Anchorage’ Demands Off Peace Talks Agenda, Zelensky Says

Russia’s limited advances and heavy battlefield losses have helped push the so-called “Anchorage agreements” off the peace talks agenda, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in New York. The proposals, associated with US President Donald Trump’s August 2025 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, have never been publicly set out in an agreed document.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Zelensky said negotiations had moved away from discussions of Ukrainian neutrality and what he called the Anchorage “3+2” formula, concerning Russian claims over five Ukrainian regions. The formula reportedly envisaged recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, alongside Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Zelensky credited US negotiators with helping shift the talks but said Ukraine’s armed forces had played the decisive role. “We are currently in control of the situation on the battlefield. It is difficult for us, but the Russians are not making any major advances,” he said. Where Russian forces do advance, he added, the cost to Moscow is high. Those conditions, he argued, strengthen Ukraine’s ability to reject unacceptable terms. Putin’s ambitions extend beyond Donbas Zelensky warned that Putin’s ambitions extend far beyond the Donbas. Even if some US officials believe Russia would stop there, Kyiv sees Moscow’s ultimate goal as bringing all of Ukraine under its control. Other Topics of Interest Ukrainian Drone Barrage Hits Russian Refineries, Missile-Parts Plant The targets included the Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez refinery, Russia’s Iskra defense plant, and the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in Rostov Oblast. Earlier this month, British national security adviser Jonathan Powell also said the “Anchorage compromise” was finished. Speaking at a conference in Kyiv, Powell said Moscow was no longer claiming that Washington had agreed Ukraine should surrender territory and abandon its hopes of joining NATO. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, however, previously claimed that the war could have ended a year ago if the US and Europe had not abandoned what he described as agreements reached at the Alaska summit. “If the Americans had not backed away from the Anchorage agreements, if Europe had not derailed those agreements, we would have been living without war for a year already,” Lavrov said during a roundtable discussion on Russia’s war against Ukraine. “That is an obvious fact, so draw your own conclusions,” he added. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.