US President Donald Trump called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a meeting in the White House on Friday to accept Russia’s terms for ending the warwrote the British newspaper Financial Times (FT) on Sunday. Trump, according to the report, warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin otherwise threatens to “destroy” Ukraine. TASR informs about it according to the Reuters agency.
- Donald Trump called on Ukraine to accept Russia’s terms.
- He warned of the risk of destruction of Ukraine by Russia.
- Requests for comment on the FT report went unanswered.
- Zelensky was acquiring weapons to defend Ukraine against a peaceful solution.
- Trump and Putin are planning a second summit on Ukraine in Budapest.
The US President at a meeting urged Zelensky to give up the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, and spoke repeatedly about topics the Russian president mentioned during a phone call with Trump the day before, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Ukraine finally managed to convince Trump to support the freezing of the current front lines, the FT wrote. Trump said after the meeting that both sides should stop the war on the battle lines, which Zelenskyi called an important point.
Neither the White House nor Zelensky’s spokesman have yet responded to Reuters’ request for comment on the FT report. Zelenskyi arrived at the White House on Friday in an attempt to obtain weapons so that his country could continue to defend itself, But Trump was clearly more interested in brokering a peace deal.
In a phone call with the US president on Thursday, Putin offered smaller parts of two southern Ukrainian frontline regions, Kherson and Zaporozhye, in exchange for much larger parts of Donbas currently controlled by Ukraine, the FT added in its report. This is less than his original demand of 2024 that Kyiv give up all of Donbas, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.
Trump and Putin agreed on their second summit on the war in Ukraine on Thursday. According to both parties, they should meet in Budapest within two weeks. Their first summit in Alaska on August 15 did not bring a breakthrough.
