Trump wants Russia and Ukraine to freeze the war on the current battlelines, with Moscow holding a huge swathe of eastern Ukraine. Zelenskyy seems unwilling.
President Trump reiterated his call on Sunday for an immediate halt to the three-and-a-half-year full-scale war in Ukraine, saying the battle lines should be frozen where they currently stand, with Russia’s invading forces occupying most of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected the idea of forfeiting the Donbas, or any other occupied ground, to Moscow in the years since Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
«Let it be cut the way it is. It’s cut up right now. I think 78% of the land is already taken by Russia. You leave it the way it is right now», Mr. Trump told reporters Sunday on Air Force One, apparently referring specifically to the Donbas region. «They can negotiate something later on down the line. But I said cut and stop at the battle line. Go home. Stop fighting, stop killing people.»
The Donbas is a culturally and economically significant region, where many people speak Russian and have sympathies with Moscow. It is home to much of Ukraine’s heavy industry and mining, accounting for about 16% of the country’s GDP before the war started, according to The Associated Press.
His remarks came two days after Mr. Trump met in person with Zelenskyy at the White House, which was a day after he spoke on the phone for two hours with Putin.
Zelenskyy appeared to reiterate Kyiv’s unwillingness to cede any territory for a ceasefire on Sunday, meanwhile, saying he had urged European leaders to apply «the right kind of pressure» on Russia.
«Almost every day now, we are communicating with leaders to ensure that we have a common position, all of us in Europe, on putting pressure on Russia — the right kind of pressure. We will grant the aggressor no gifts and forget nothing», Zelenskyy said in a social media post.
