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The Russian demand and Trump's insistence on a ceasefire are likely to revive deep anxiety among European leaders, who were alarmed when the US president rejected the possibility of exchanging territories as part of a peace deal.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded that Ukraine withdraw from the eastern Donetsk region as a condition for ending Russia's war. Putin has told Donald Trump that if his main demands are met, he could freeze the rest of the front line.
The Russian leader made his request during a meeting with Trump in Alaska on Friday. Trump then conveyed the message to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in a phone call on Saturday, during which he urged them to abandon efforts to secure a ceasefire from Moscow.
The move would give Moscow full control of a territory it has partially occupied for more than a decade and where its troops are advancing at the fastest pace since November.
In exchange for the Donetsk region, Putin said he would raise the front line in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia, where his forces occupy large areas of land, and that he would not launch new attacks to take more territory.
Putin stressed that he had not given up on his core demands to “solve the root causes” of the conflict, which would essentially end Ukrainian statehood in its current form and prevent NATO’s eastward expansion.
According to a former senior Kremlin official, the Russian president is prepared to compromise on other issues, including territory, if he is satisfied that the "root causes" are addressed.
Russian forces control about 70 percent of Donetsk, but its westernmost chain of cities remains under Ukrainian control and is critical to the military operation and defense along the eastern front.
Experts said Zelenskyy said he would not agree to hand over Donetsk, but they said the Ukrainian president would be open to discussing the territorial issue with Trump in Washington, where they are expected to meet on Monday.
Zelenskyy would also be open to discussing the issue in a three-way meeting with Trump and Putin, the people said. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the content of Trump's discussions with Putin. Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a social media post today, Trump called on European leaders to abandon efforts to secure a ceasefire from Putin, advising Zelenskyy to "make a deal" with Russia.
“It was decided by all that the best way to end the terrible war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not just a Ceasefire Agreement, which often doesn’t hold up,” Trump wrote on Social Truth after a call with European leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron.
"If all goes well, we will schedule a meeting with President Putin," Trump added.
The Kremlin said Putin and Trump did not discuss a trilateral meeting with Zelensky in Anchorage, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Donetsk.
The Russian demand and Trump's insistence on a ceasefire are likely to revive deep anxiety among European leaders, who were alarmed before the Alaska meeting when the US president dismissed the possibility of exchanging territories as part of a peace deal.
They gained some reassurance when Trump promised the Russian leader a commitment to a cessation of hostilities as a preliminary step toward peace negotiations, while threatening "serious consequences" if Putin refused.
But the three-hour meeting yielded no such result.
Instead, he gave Putin a chance to break out of his international isolation. Putin is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Trump welcomed him to Anchorage with a red carpet and was seen joking with him before the talks./ Adapted from the Financial Times.
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