After the meeting with Putin in Alaska, Trump spoke on the phone with Zelensky for more than an hour and a half. NATO leaders, as well as some European leaders, joined the conversation.
According to sources privy to the conversation, Trump told Zelensky that Putin is ready to stop fighting on other fronts if Ukraine withdraws from the east of the country. Zelensky refused, stressing that there will be no withdrawal from Donbass.
Putin's request and Trump's support
According to foreign media, Putin demanded at the summit that Ukraine withdraw from the Donetsk region in exchange for freezing the front in the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions."The New Times" then announced that Trump supports this plan and believes that peace can be achieved quickly if Ukraine agrees to hand over the rest of the Donbass, including the territories currently not held by Russian forces.
Trump and Zelensky are scheduled to meet on Monday at the White House. European leaders have also been invited to the meeting, although it has not yet been confirmed who will attend.
Let's remind you that Zelensky also last week explicitly rejected the possibility of withdrawing from Donbass.
- If we withdraw from Donbass today - from our fortifications, from the terrain and heights we hold, it is clear that we would open the way for the Russians for a new offensive - said the Ukrainian president.
Such a plan would also contradict the warnings of European leaders that in any peace agreement the territorial integrity of Ukraine must be respected and the principle that international borders cannot be changed by force. In addition, any such proposal would have to be approved by the Ukrainian parliament.
In our separate text, read.
Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, arrived in Alaska yesterday, and the provocative T-shirt he wore attracted the attention of all the media.