To accept its terms for ending the war, he called on its president during their meeting at the White House on Friday, warning him that he threatened to “destroy” his country if he did not comply, the Financial Times reveals.
During the meeting, the newspaper reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, Trump insisted on handing over the entire Donbas region to Russia, repeating what Putin had told him during their phone call the previous day.
Finally, again according to the FT, the Ukrainian side managed to convert Trump to support the freezing of the current front lines and so the US president said after the meeting with the Ukrainian president that the two sides should stop the war on the battle line. Volodymyr Zelensky described this position as important.
What did Trump want?
Zelensky arrived at the White House on Friday to repeat a call for weapons, specifically Tomahawk missiles, to be sent to Kiev to continue the war against Moscow, but Trump, buoyed by the Gaza truce deal, appeared eager to move toward another peace deal.
What did Putin offer?
In Thursday’s Trump-Putin phone call, the Russian president offered small front-line areas in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia in exchange for much larger areas of Donbas that Russian forces have been unable to capture from Ukrainian forces.
However, Moscow’s new demands are smaller than those it had formulated in 2024, asking Kiev for the entire Donbas, along with Kherson and Zaporizhia.
What’s next
The White House did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment on the Financial Times report.
The Ukrainian presidency has not yet responded to the question of whether Trump pressured Volodymyr Zelensky to accept Moscow’s terms.
Trump and Putin agreed Thursday to a second summit within the next two weeks, possibly in Budapest.
