(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to just accept Russia’s phrases for ending the battle between Russia and Ukraine in a White Home assembly on Friday, warning that President Vladimir Putin threatened to “destroy” Ukraine if it did not comply, the Monetary Instances reported on Sunday.
In the course of the assembly, Trump insisted Zelenskiy give up the complete jap Donbas area to Russia, repeatedly echoing speaking factors the Russian president had made of their name a day earlier, the newspaper stated, citing folks accustomed to the matter.
Ukraine in the end managed to swing Trump again to endorsing a freeze of the present entrance strains, the FT stated. Trump stated after the assembly that the 2 sides ought to cease the battle on the battle line; Zelenskiy stated that was an necessary level.
The White Home didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for touch upon the FT report.
Zelenskiy arrived on the White Home on Friday on the lookout for weapons to maintain preventing his nation’s battle, however met an American president who appeared extra intent on brokering a peace deal.
In Thursday’s name with Trump, Putin had supplied some small areas of the 2 southern frontline areas of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in alternate for the a lot bigger elements of the Donbas now underneath Ukrainian management, the FT report added.
That’s lower than his unique 2024 demand for Kyiv to cede everything of Donbas plus Kherson and Zaporizhzhia within the south, an space of practically 20,000 sq. km.
Zelenskiy’s spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark despatched outdoors enterprise hours on whether or not Trump had pressured Zelenskiy to just accept peace on Russia’s phrases.
Trump and Putin agreed on Thursday to carry a second summit on the battle in Ukraine inside the subsequent two weeks, provisionally in Budapest, following an August 15 assembly in Alaska that failed to provide a breakthrough.
(Reporting by Anusha Shah in Bengaluru; enhancing by Philippa Fletcher)
