President Trump reiterated his call on Sunday for an immediate halt to the three-and-a-half-year full-scale war in Ukraine, saying the battle lines should be frozen where they currently stand, with Russia’s invading forces occupying most of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected the idea of forfeiting the Donbas, or any other occupied ground, to Moscow in the years since Vladimir Putin ordered Russia full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
“Let it be cut the way it is. It’s cut up right now. I think 78% of the land is already taken by Russia. You leave it the way it is right now,” Mr. Trump told reporters Sunday on Air Force One, apparently referring specifically to the Donbas region. “They can negotiate something later on down the line. But I said cut and stop at the battle line. Go home. Stop fighting, stop killing people.”
His remarks came two days after Mr. Trump met in person with Zelenskyy at the White House, which was a day after he spoke on the phone for two hours with Putin.
Zelenskyy appeared to reiterate Kyiv’s unwillingness to cede any territory for a ceasefire on Sunday, meanwhile, saying he had urged European leaders to apply “the right kind of pressure” on Russia.
“Almost every day now, we are communicating with leaders to ensure that we have a common position, all of us in Europe, on putting pressure on Russia — the right kind of pressure. We will grant the aggressor no gifts and forget nothing,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Sunday that Ukraine should not be put under pressure to make concessions on its territory.
“None of us should put pressure on Zelenskyy when it comes to territorial concessions,” he said in a social media post. “We should all put pressure on Russia to stop its aggression. Appeasement never was a road to a just and lasting peace.”
In another social media post, Zelenskyy called his Friday Oval Office meeting with Mr. Trump a “pointed conversation.”
Mr. Trump said in a post on his own Truth Social media platform that his meeting with the Ukrainian leader was “very interesting, and cordial.”
“I told him, as I likewise strongly suggested to President Putin, that it is time to stop the killing, and make a DEAL! Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts. They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide,” Mr. Trump said.
The president had spoken on Thursday with Putin by phone. Following that lengthy discussion, the White House said Mr. Trump would hold a second bilateral summit with Putin in Hungary’s capital, Budapest, at a still-to-be-confirmed date to discuss a possible ceasefire deal. Mr. Trump said it would likely happen within a couple weeks.
It will be their second bilateral meeting this year, following in-person talks in Alaska in August. That diplomatic effort by Mr. Trump yielded no tangible results, as Moscow has continued to press its military campaign, taking more territory on the ground and bombarding Ukrainian cities from the air. Putin has also so far declined Mr. Trump’s urging to hold a three-way meeting with Zelenskyy.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials told CBS News that Zelenskyy had hoped Mr. Trump would agree to a deal at Friday’s meeting to supply Tomahawk missiles, but that has not yet materialized. Kyiv sees the long-range, guided cruise missiles as vital to give Ukraine’s armed forces the ability to hit critical military, logistical and energy targets deep inside Russia.
Ukraine has ramped up its attacks on key Russian energy infrastructure in recent months. The General Staff of the Armed Services, Ukraine’s military headquarters, said Sunday in a social media post that it had struck the Orenburg Gas plant in southern Russia, one of the country’s largest natural gas processing plants.
“The Defense Forces of Ukraine are consistently implementing a set of measures to damage critical enterprises involved in ensuring the needs of the Russian Armed Forces,” the general staff staff.
The Trump administration has implemented a policy of selling weapons to Ukraine via America’s European NATO allies, who foot the bill for the hardware, since August. That arrangement was worked out between Mr. Trump and other NATO leaders earlier in the summer.
Despite positive signals from the White House in recent months regarding a potential deal to supply Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, Mr. Trump demurred on the subject when asked about it by reporters Friday during his meeting with Zelenskyy.
“One thing I have to say, we want Tomahawks, also. We don’t want to be giving away things that we need to protect our country,” Mr. Trump said.
Vice President JD Vance told reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Sunday that Mr. Trump had not yet made a final decision on whether to grant Ukraine access to the missiles.
“If he thinks it is in America’s best interest to sell additional weapons to Europe, he will do that, but right now he has not made that decision with regards to Tomahawks,” Vance said.
