Kyiv, 22 October (H.S.): U.S. President Donald Trump pressured his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, to surrender the eastern Donbas region in exchange for peace during tense and not easy talks at the White House last Friday, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP.
The revelation adds a new layer of complexity to the administration’s faltering diplomatic efforts to end the war, which the official described as feeling dragged out and going in circles.
The contentious meeting occurred just one day after Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and as hopes for a swift end to the three-and-a-half-year conflict have dimmed.
According to the official, Zelensky left Washington empty-handed after Trump denied his request for long-range Tomahawk missiles and instead urged him to accept a deal with Moscow.
This account contrasts sharply with Trump’s public statements on Sunday, when he called for both sides to stop right now at the battle lines and negotiate something later on.
When asked directly if Trump had pushed Zelensky to pull out of land Ukraine still controls—a key demand from Putin—the Ukrainian official confirmed, Yes, that’s true.
The report of private pressure to cede territory has caused consternation in European capitals. On Tuesday, leaders including France’s Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, and Britain’s Keir Starmer issued a joint statement warning that Russia was not serious about peace. While they publicly supported Trump’s call for a ceasefire along the current line of contact, they firmly rejected any notion of Ukraine making territorial concessions.
Meanwhile, plans for a follow-up summit between Trump and Putin, announced last week for Budapest, have been put on hold. The Kremlin said Tuesday there was no precise date for a meeting, and a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a summit would not happen in the immediate future.
President Zelensky, who has consistently ruled out giving up any part of the Donbas, had been pushing to be included in any Budapest talks after being excluded from the leaders’ previous meeting in Alaska this past August.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
