Trump likely to back ceding of key Ukrainian territories to Russia at White House meet with Zelenskyy

PTC News Desk: After meeting Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Frida, Donald Trump has reportedly told European Union leaders he is willing to consider the Russian President’s demand that Ukraine hand over the remainder of its eastern Donbas region—not just agree to a ceasefire—in order to end the war, The New York Times reported.

Putin had made it clear ahead of the ceasefire talks that Moscow expects Kyiv to cede Donbas to bring the four-year conflict to an end. In the run-up to the Alaska summit, Russian forces tried to break through Ukraine’s defences in Donetsk, the last part of Donbas not yet under their control. Luhansk, the other half of the region, is already occupied by Russia.

Trump’s proposal that Ukraine relinquish Donetsk as the price for peace may be difficult to achieve. Shortly after his talks with Putin, Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who rejected the idea of freezing the front lines in return for surrendering Donetsk, according to Reuters. Zelenskyy had previously dismissed such an arrangement, warning it would only invite another war in the future.

Despite the rejection, Trump intends to press the issue again when Zelenskyy visits the White House on Monday, the NYT reported. In exchange, Russia has indicated it could return small areas of occupied land elsewhere, though it has so far failed to seize Donetsk, Reuters said.

Meanwhile, European concerns that Trump may be conceding too much to Putin appear to be materialising, as the Russian leader has abandoned the notion of a ceasefire in favour of a hasty peace deal that would help him secure long-sought control over the region.

For Ukraine, however, ceding the mineral-rich Donbas—with its strategic defensive lines—would mean effectively giving Putin a stronghold over the territory east of the Dnipro River, which cuts across the heart of the country.