Europe stresses need to protect Ukraine ahead of Trump-Putin talks

In the lead up to a major meeting between two world leaders in Alaska - U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin - the road to peace and what that it could look like is being subtly alluded to. 

On Wednesday. Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin and both sides described the three-hour meeting as constructive. 

U.S. Vice President JD Vance met British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and representatives of Ukraine and European allies on Saturday at Chevening House, a country mansion southeast of London, to discuss Trump's push for peace.

A joint statement from the French, Italian, German, Polish, British and Finnish leaders and the president of the European Commission welcomed Trump's efforts, while stressing the need to maintain support for Ukraine and pressure on Russia.

"We share the conviction that a diplomatic solution must protect Ukraine's and Europe's vital security interests," the statement said.

"We agree that these vital interests include the need for robust and credible security guarantees that enable Ukraine to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity," the statement said, adding: "The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine."

The leaders said "they remain committed to the principle that international borders must not be changed by force", and added: "The current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations."

Territory concessions:

Since the announcement of the August 15 meeting, Trump told reporters in Washington on Friday that an agreement would involve some kind of exchange of land. 

"There'll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both," Trump said.

But Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine could not violate its constitution on the territorial issues. 

Zelenskyy said that "Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier", and that "decisions without Ukraine" would not bring peace.

Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov said the leaders were focusing on achieving long-term peace and a "resolution to the Ukrainian crisis". 

"This will evidently be a challenging process, but we will engage in it actively and energetically," Ushakov said.

The conflict rages on - the latest attacks

Russia's Ministry of Defence said on Saturday that its forces had taken control of another Ukrainian village in the Donetsk region. The TASS news agency identified the village as Yablunivka.

Russia's Defence Ministry also said that Moscow's forces shot down 224 Ukrainian drones on Friday night into Saturday.

Moscow claims a Ukrainian drone attack caused a large fire at an oil depot near Sochi at the beginning of August lead to a temporary suspension of flights at a nearby airport. 

On the night of July 21, the Russian Armed Forces launched a massive attack on Ukraine including Kyiv, using missiles and drones.⁣

⁣According to Zelenskyy, two people were killed and at least 15 were injured across Ukraine. ⁣

⁣Explosions lit up the sky with Ukraine’s air force reporting 426 drones and 24 missiles were launched - 23 drones hit their targets. ⁣

⁣Russia's defense ministry says it downed 117 Ukrainian drones including 30 over the Moscow region. ⁣

The attacks peaked in early July when Moscow launched 748 drones and missiles towards Ukraine on 9 July, according to Ukrainian Air Force data.