Zelensky says the ‘spirit of Anchorage’ concessions are no longer on the negotiating table. He credits Ukraine’s battlefield position.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the “Anchorage agreements,” which included Russia’s demands for recognition of its sovereignty over occupied territories, are no longer on the negotiating table. He spoke at a meeting with representatives of the Ukrainian community in the U.S.
The talks have shifted away from Ukrainian neutrality and recognition of Russian sovereignty over occupied territories, Zelensky said.
He said Ukraine’s armed forces played the biggest role in that shift and that the situation on the front gives Ukraine room to reject Moscow’s demands.
“We control the situation on the battlefield today. It’s hard for us, but the Russians aren’t making any major advances. Where they are advancing, Russia is paying a very high price in human lives — hundreds, thousands of them,” Zelensky said.
The phrase “spirit of Anchorage” emerged after Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump met in Alaska on August 15, 2025. Russian officials began using it to refer to what they said were agreements reached there. In February 2026, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia had accepted U.S. proposals on Ukraine after the Alaska summit, but Washington itself was now unprepared to accept them. He later said that “the spirit of Anchorage is evaporating.”
Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, has said that, by “the spirit of Anchorage,” Russia means ending the war on terms under which the international community would recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea, the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and the Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
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