{"id":212480,"date":"2025-10-20T05:32:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T05:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/212480\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T05:32:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T05:32:07","slug":"trump-suggests-carving-up-ukraines-donbas-region-to-end-war-after-meeting-with-zelenskyy-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/212480\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump suggests carving up Ukraine\u2019s Donbas region to end war after meeting with Zelenskyy | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump has suggested the best way to end the war in Ukraine would be to \u201ccut up\u201d the country\u2019s Donbas region in a way that would leave most of it under Russian control, after reportedly pushing Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a> at a White House meeting to give up swaths of territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet it be cut the way it is,\u201d Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. \u201cIt\u2019s cut up right now,\u201d he said, adding that you can \u201cleave it the way it is right now\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can negotiate something later on down the line,\u201d he said. But for now, both sides of the conflict should \u201cstop at the battle line \u2013 go home, stop fighting, stop killing people\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s comments came after a tense meeting<\/a> with the Ukrainian president at the White House on Friday, and will be seen as an abrupt turn around from his stance in September, when he said that he thought Ukraine could take back all its territory<\/a> and even \u201cgo further\u201d into Russian lands. He also described Russia as a \u201cpaper tiger\u201d.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy had flown to Washington hoping to capitalise on Trump\u2019s growing frustration with Vladimir Putin after the US president\u2019s summit in Alaska failed to produce a breakthrough in the war.<\/p>\n

But the Ukrainian leader left empty-handed, failing to secure long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles after weeks of lobbying. The missiles would be the longest-range weapons in Ukraine\u2019s arsenal and would allow it to strike targets deep inside Russia, including Moscow, with precision.<\/p>\n

Trump appeared far more upbeat about the prospects of a deal since a lengthy call on Thursday with Putin, in which they agreed to meet soon in Budapest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After meeting Zelenskyy at the White House, Trump said on social media the talks were \u201cvery interesting, and cordial, but I told him, as I likewise strongly suggested to President Putin, that it is time to stop the killing, and make a DEAL\u201d.<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, Trump had pushed Zelenskyy to give up swaths of territory to Russia<\/a>, according to two people briefed on the discussion, as reported by Reuters.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump greets Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy outside the West Wing of the White House last week. Photograph: Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The sources described the meeting as tense, with the Ukrainian delegation leaving frustrated.<\/p>\n

The two sources had the impression that Trump was influenced by the Thursday call with Putin during which, according to the Washington Post, Putin proposed a territorial swap in which Ukraine would cede the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in return for Russia<\/a> pulling out of small parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.<\/p>\n

The sources said US special envoy Steve Witkoff was among those who most aggressively urged the Ukrainians to agree to a proposal to \u201cswap\u201d territory, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n

Asked in a Fox News interview conducted on Thursday whether Putin would be open to ending the war \u201cwithout taking significant property from Ukraine\u201d, Trump responded: \u201cWell, he\u2019s going to take something.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey fought and he has a lot of property. He\u2019s won certain property,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe\u2019re the only nation that goes in, wins a war and then leaves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The interview was aired on Sunday but conducted before Trump spoke to Putin on Thursday and met with Zelenskyy on Friday.<\/p>\n

Then on Sunday evening, while flying from Florida to Washington, Trump reiterated his stance that Ukraine would need to give up territory by having the fighting \u201cstop at the lines where they are\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rest is very tough to negotiate if you\u2019re going to say, \u2018You take this, we take that,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cYou know, there are so many different permutations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he had told Zelenskyy that Ukraine must cede all of the Donbas region to Russia, Trump said no.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy has called on decisive steps from European and American allies, saying that it was time for another meeting between the Europe-led \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cUkraine will never grant terrorists any bounty for their crimes, and we count on our partners to uphold this very position,\u201d Zelenskyy wrote on social media on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump has suggested the best way to end the war in Ukraine would be to \u201ccut up\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-212480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}