Donald Trump is expected to press Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to surrender a key eastern region to Russia when the two leaders meet at the White House on Monday.
Trump, who met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Saturday, has reportedly told European Union leaders that he is prepared to accept Moscow’s demand that Ukraine give up the remaining part of the Donbas region to end the war, not just reach a ceasefire.
Putin’s demand that Ukraine hand over Donbas was made clear days before the ceasefire talks. The region has seen Moscow intensify its push against Kyiv’s defences, particularly in Donetsk — the last part of Donbas outside Russian control. The other part, Luhansk, has already been seized by Moscow.
Despite Trump’s push, the plan appears unlikely to succeed. Following Trump’s meeting with Putin, Zelenskyy firmly rejected the proposal, which called for Ukraine to surrender full control of Donetsk in exchange for a freeze on front-line positions.
Zelenskyy had earlier dismissed the idea, warning it would only pave the way for another war.
Russia has offered to return small pockets of occupied land in exchange for Donetsk, though the proposal has been widely seen as favouring Moscow’s interests.
European leaders have voiced concern that Trump is playing into Putin’s hands. The Russian leader has since dropped calls for a ceasefire, pushing instead for a rapid peace settlement that would secure his long-standing objective of controlling Donbas.
For Ukraine, relinquishing Donbas — a mineral-rich region and home to major defence lines — would effectively hand Putin a strategic stronghold over all territory east of the Dnipro River, which runs through the centre of the country.
Putin has also agreed to halt Russia’s southern offensive by creating a “freeze” in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, most of which are already under Moscow’s control. “If Russia’s demands were met, Putin would not continue the offensive in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, so there would be a kind of freeze there."
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