Following his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Saturday, Donald Trump has reportedly told European Union leaders that he was prepared to accept the Russian President’s demand that Ukraine cede the remaining part of its eastern Donbas region in a bid to end the war, not merely reach a ceasefire, The New York Times reported.
Putin’s demand that Ukraine surrender Donbas to halt the four-year war was made clear days before the ceasefire deal. Donbas has seen Moscow trying to push through Kyiv’s defences ahead of the Alaska summit in an attempt to capture its last unconquered territory, Donetsk. The other part of Donbas, Luhansk, is already under Russian control.
However, Trump’s desire for Ukraine to give up its remaining territory in this key eastern region to end the war could remain elusive. Ahead of the Alaska meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy firmly dismissed such a possibility, saying it would only pave the way for future war.
Trump now intends to present this proposal to Zelenskyy when he arrives at the White House on Monday, the NYT further reported.
In return, Russia is willing to give back tiny pockets of the territories it has occupied in Ukraine for Donetsk, which it has been unable to capture so far, international news agency Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, Europe’s worst fears of Trump playing into Putin’s hands appear to be coming true, with the Russian leader now dropping the ceasefire plan in pursuit of a rushed peace deal aimed at fulfilling his long-standing goal of securing control.
For Ukraine, surrendering the mineral-rich Donbas region — home to major defensive lines — would be akin to handing Putin the key to the entire area east of the Dnipro River, which runs through the heart of the country.
The Financial Times reported that Putin has agreed to halt Russia’s southern offensive by creating a “freeze” in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, most of which are already under Moscow’s control.
“If Russia’s demands were met, Putin would not continue the offensive in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, so there would be a kind of freeze there,” AFP quoted a source as saying.
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