Financial Times: Trump called on Zelensky to accept Putin’s conditions news

The British Financial Times reported on Sunday that US President Donald Trump urged his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to accept Russia’s conditions for ending the war, warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin had vowed to “destroy Ukraine” if it did not comply.

The newspaper quoted informed sources as saying that Trump stressed, during his meeting with Zelensky at the White House last Friday, the need for Ukraine to hand over the entire eastern Donbas region to Russia, repeating the points that Putin raised during their phone call the previous day.

The newspaper added that at the end of the meeting, Ukraine was able to convince Trump to return to supporting freezing the current lines of contact, noting that Trump said after the meeting that “both sides must stop the war at the current battle line,” which Zelensky described as “an important point.”

Zelensky arrived in Washington on Friday in an attempt to obtain additional weapons to support his forces, but the meeting with Trump, according to the newspaper, revealed “the American president’s determination to play the role of mediator to end the war” more than his willingness to provide new military support.

The Financial Times noted that during his call with Trump on Thursday, Putin offered to “give up small parts of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions located on the southern front,” in exchange for Moscow obtaining “the larger areas of Donbass” currently under Ukraine’s control.

This offer represents a retreat from Putin’s previous demand in 2024, which included annexing the entire Donbass in addition to Kherson and Zaporozhye, that is, about 20,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory.

Trump and Putin agreed to hold a second summit in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, within the next two weeks, to continue discussions on the war, after the Alaska summit held in August, which did not achieve tangible progress.