“How can there be any deal without us about us?”: Zelenskyy rejects ceding more territory, ready to join Trump-Putin Budapest meeting
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in an interview with NBC News, rejected the possibility of transferring additional unoccupied territories to Russia and declared his readiness to join a future meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian ruler Vladimir Putin in Budapest.
“If we want to stop this war and urgently proceed to peace negotiations through diplomacy, we must remain where we are and not give Putin anything additional,” the President said.
Zelenskyy, who called Putin a terrorist in the interview, confirmed his readiness to meet with him face-to-face.
“If we really want a just and lasting peace, we need both sides of this tragedy. How can there be any deal without us about us?” he asked.
When asked if he would insist on going to Budapest, Zelenskyy replied that he told Trump: “I am ready.”
Read also: Crimea liberation is question of survival for Crimean Tatars — Mustafa Dzhemiliev
According to The Washington Post, during a conversation with Donald Trump, Putin demanded full control over the Ukrainian territory of Donetsk province “to end the war”, hinting that he was ready to concede parts of the Ukrainian territories of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson provinces in return.
U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Putin on October 16, 2025, for the first time in almost two months, after which he announced they are planning a meeting in Budapest. This would be Putin’s first appearance in an EU member state capital since the full-scale war began and would require him to fly over the territory of other member states.
Earlier, eight Ukrainian human rights organizations called on all parties in the negotiation process to consider the interests of Ukrainian citizens living in the temporarily occupied territories (ТОТ) of Ukraine. In a joint statement, the organizations underlined the fact that ensuring the rights and interests of TOT residents must be part of the agreements within the negotiation process. The organizations also presented a ten-point list of specific steps that the occupying authorities must implement.
Among the specific steps that should be part of the negotiation process, the organizations highlighted:
- Release of all civilians arbitrarily detained by representatives of the Russian armed forces or the occupation authorities;
- Cessation of Russia’s unlawful practice of criminal and administrative persecution and detention of Ukrainian citizens in the TOT of Ukraine, which is used as an instrument of intimidation and political pressure;
- Determining the temporary line of contact and establishing temporary checkpoints to allow entry and exit from the TOT of Ukraine to areas that are controlled by the Ukrainian government and vice versa (humanitarian corridors);
- Granting humanitarian access for international organisations to the TOT of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, with the possibility of direct humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian citizens;
- Providing available information and access to the TOT of Ukraine to search teams to establish the location of persons missing under special circumstances;
- Ensuring the presence of international observation (monitoring) missions in all TOT of Ukraine, in particular to monitor the human rights situation;
- Demining of settlements and civilian infrastructure in the TOT of Ukraine;
- Ensuring that Ukrainian citizens can reside in the TOT of Ukraine without the need to obtain a Russian passport or any other documents granting the “right to reside” in the TOT of Ukraine. This has thus far been the requirement by the occupying forces following the illegal extantion to the TOT of Ukraine;
- Ensuring unimpeded access of Ukrainian citizens in the TOT of Ukraine to medical services, social and pension benefits, education, property rights, and freedom of movement, and independent sources of information;
- Ensuring that residents of the TOT of Ukraine who have been forcibly displaced to the territory of the RF or within the TOT of Ukraine are able to return to their homes or leave for the territory controlled by the Government of Ukraine.
Any delay in the liberation of the territories temporarily occupied by Russia will lead to the complete destruction of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar identities there, Alena Lunova, advocacy director of the ZMINA Human Rights Center, stated live on “Radio Nakypilo.”
The human rights advocate called a proposal to discuss the de-occupation of the temporarily occupied territories in 49 years, as was voiced during talks with the aggressor country, unacceptable. She noted that the aggressor nation, in violation of international law, is demanding that Ukrainian citizens in the occupied territories obtain Russian passports or a foreigner’s document, among other things.
Alena Lunova“We are documenting how the Russians are colonizing the temporarily occupied territories, settling them with their own citizens and thereby displacing the Ukrainian population from Ukrainian territory or destroying their identity. In 50 years, there will be no one there to talk to about de-occupation, because the policy of the Russian Federation is aimed at the extermination of Ukrainianness,” Alena Lunova stated.
“A description of the Russian Federation’s violations can serve as an argument as to why this option is not suitable for Ukraine, and we need to communicate to our partners that we cannot take a years-long pause in any de-occupation policy, because there will be no more Ukrainians there,” she added, drawing a historical parallel to when Moscow, after deporting the Crimean Tatars from the Crimean peninsula in 1944, forbade them from returning home for decades.
