Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – US President Donald Trump pressured Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to give up the eastern Donbas region in exchange for peace during “tense” talks last Friday in Washington, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP. The source added that the talks with Trump were “not easy,” and that diplomatic efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war felt like they were being “dragged out” and “going in circles.”
Trump has been unable to broker a speedy end to Russia’s three-and-a-half-year invasion since returning to the White House in January, despite meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin for peace talks in Alaska in August. Hopes for a quick end to the war have since dimmed. Putin and Trump last week announced plans for a second meeting in Budapest, but the Kremlin said Tuesday there was no “precise” date when this would happen, and a US official indicated they would not meet in the “immediate future.”
European leaders have meanwhile rejected the idea of Ukraine giving up land—instead proposing that fighting should be frozen on the current front lines. Ukraine considers the Donbas—a largely industrial area spanning its eastern Lugansk and Donetsk regions—an inseparable part of its territory and has rejected the idea of ceding it many times. In a joint statement published Tuesday, European leaders, including France’s Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, and Britain’s Keir Starmer, warned that Russia was not “serious about peace.” “We strongly support President Trump’s position that the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations,” the statement said.
In comments made on board Air Force One on Sunday, Trump made no references to Kyiv ceding territory. “What I say is they should stop right now at the battle lines … They can negotiate something later on down the line,” Trump told reporters. But when asked if Trump urged Zelensky to pull out of land Ukraine still controlled—one of Putin’s key demands—a senior Ukrainian official told AFP: “Yes, that’s true.”
Zelensky met Trump at the White House last week, hoping to capitalize on the US leader’s growing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s reluctance to accept a ceasefire. But he instead left empty-handed after Trump—who spoke with Putin the day before—denied his request for long-range Tomahawk missiles and pressured him into making a deal. Zelensky, who is pushing to attend any summit in Budapest after being shut out of Trump’s last meeting with Putin in Alaska, has ruled out territorial concessions. European allies have also railed against the idea. France’s Macron said Tuesday that Ukraine’s Western allies were ready to provide security guarantees in the event of a ceasefire, but that Kyiv alone would decide on any territorial negotiations. “No one else can do this. Therefore, it is up to Ukraine to decide for itself and its territory,” Macron said in Slovenia.
Following their phone call last week, Putin and Trump announced they would meet in Budapest for talks on resolving the war. But Moscow on Tuesday doused hopes for a swift meeting, saying there was “no precise timeframe.” Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Trump administration official also said there was no immediate plan for a summit. EU leaders are set to close ranks in support of Ukraine at a Brussels summit on Thursday—followed a day later by a “coalition of the willing” meeting of European leaders in London to discuss the next steps to help Kyiv.
Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, describing it as a “special military operation” to demilitarize the country and prevent the expansion of NATO. Russia now occupies around a fifth of Ukrainian territory—much of it ravaged by fighting—while tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers have been killed. A Russian drone attack earlier Tuesday on the town of Novgorod-Siverskyi in Ukraine’s northern Chernigiv region killed four people, the state emergency service said.
© 2024 AFP
