(15 Aug 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kharkiv region, Ukraine – 15 August 2025
1. Close of drone
2. Close of phone screen showing drone flying
3. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Name unknown, (nom de guerre: "Chief"), commander of the drone unit of the Khartiia Brigade:
"The device flies out, and a standard box is attached underneath it. It flies out, and at full speed, the lid opens and the ammunition is dumped out. This is called Carpet."
4. Close of wires
5. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Name unknown, (nom de guerre: "Chief"), commander of the drone unit of the Khartiia Brigade:
"A ceasefire and the end of the war, if we look at it in general terms, is when the occupiers liberate all of our land. Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Crimea must be left. They must simply leave. When they leave, we will strike them. We will make sure that they remember this forever, that you cannot go to someone else’s land with war and occupation."
6. Close of shelf
7. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Name unknown, (nom de guerre: "Chief"), commander of the drone unit of the Khartiia Brigade:
"They gathered without us to decide something, without Ukraine, some kind of agreement. I think it is not right to make agreements without us. It is not right to decide something for Ukraine without Ukraine, without representatives of our state. This is not a solution to the problem."
8. Close of drone
9. Close of phone with drone footage
STORYLINE:
The war in Ukraine will only end when Russia leaves all occupied land, said a Ukrainian commander Friday ahead of the talks between Washington and Moscow.
Asked about the possible outcome of Russia-U.S. talks in Alaska, ‘Chief’, a commander of the Khartiia Brigade drone unit who did not share his real name with the AP, said "a ceasefire and the end of the war, if we look at it in general terms, is when the occupiers liberate all of our land."
"They gathered without us to decide something, without Ukraine, some kind of agreement," he told the AP.
President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin kicked off their Alaska summit with a warm handshake on Friday, greeting each other like old friends before heading into hours of discussions that could reshape the war in Ukraine and relations between Moscow and Washington.
For Putin, a summit with Trump offers a long-sought opportunity to try to negotiate a deal that would cement Russia’s gains, block Kyiv’s bid to join the NATO military alliance and eventually pull Ukraine back into Moscow’s orbit.
Despite having so much at stake, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders aren’t invited.
Zelenskyy’s exclusion from Trump and Putin’s first meeting is a heavy blow to the West’s policy of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” and invites the possibility that Trump could agree to a deal that Ukraine does not want.
"I think it is not right to make agreements without us," ‘Chief’ said prior to the talks. "It is not right to decide something for Ukraine without Ukraine, without representatives of our state."
‘Chief’s’ Khartiia Brigade operates in the Lyptsi region just north of Kharkiv, and is one of the key defensive sectors against Russian pushes from the border.
Here, the Khartiia Brigade has been holding their ground for months.
Trump said earlier in the week there was a 25% chance that the summit would fail, but he also floated the idea that if the meeting succeeds he could bring Zelenskyy to Alaska for a subsequent, three-way meeting.
He has also expressed doubts about getting an immediate ceasefire, but he has wanted a broad peace deal done quickly.
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