A funeral was held at Independence Square on Saturday in Kyiv to honour fallen Azov Brigade fighter Mykhailo Kovaliv.

Azov Brigade soldier Andrii Levchenko paid tribute to Kovaliv and said his death "is a reminder to each of us of what Ukraine is and how we must fight for it.”

Reactions to the idea of Ukraine ceding territory to Russia rippled across the capital.

This came following US President Donald Trump suggestion of a peace deal that could include “some swapping of territories.”

Svitlana Dobrynska, whose son died fighting, rejected outright concessions but supported halting combat to save lives.

“We don’t have the opportunity to launch an offensive to recapture our territories,” the 57-year-old pensioner said.

“But to prevent people from dying, we can simply stop military operations, sign some kind of agreement, but not give up our territories," she added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday dismissed the planned summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, warning that any peace deal excluding Kyiv would lead to “dead solutions.”

The Trump-Putin meeting, scheduled for Friday in Alaska, is seen as a potential breakthrough in the more than three-year war.

AP video by Dan Bashakov