In a phone call with US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that Kyiv surrender full control of Donetsk as a condition to end the war, two senior officials said, according to the Washington Post. Notably, Donetsk is a strategically important region in eastern Ukraine.
For the past 11 years, Putin has tried but failed to seize the territory, as Ukrainian forces, firmly entrenched in the area, have repeatedly pushed back his attempts. They see the region as a key defence line against a rapid Russian push toward their capital.
Putin’s focus on Donetsk suggests he is not backing away from past demands that have left the conflict in a stalemate, despite Trump’s optimism about securing a deal, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive closed-door discussions. Russia or Russian-backed separatists have claimed parts of the region since 2014, but they have never been able to conquer the entirety of the region by force.
Trump has not made any public statement about Putin’s demand for full control of Donetsk, a detail that has not been reported before.
Trump did not endorse the Russian request in his public statement on Friday after a high-stakes West Wing meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He plans to meet Putin in Hungary in the coming weeks to continue discussions about how to end the war, as per the Washington Post.
“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!” Trump wrote on social media Friday after the meeting with Zelenskyy.
In the call between Trump and Putin, the Russian leader suggested he would be willing to surrender parts of two other regions of Ukraine he has partly conquered, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, in exchange for full control of Donetsk, the officials told The Washington Post.
That is slightly less of a sweeping territorial claim than he made in August at a summit between Trump and Putin in Anchorage. Some White House officials portrayed that as progress, according to one of the two senior officials, who was briefed on the Putin call.
Ukrainians are unlikely to view it that way, said the other official, a senior European diplomat. “It’s like selling them their own leg in exchange for nothing,” the diplomat said.
Neither the White House nor the Kremlin immediately responded to a request for comment.
The front lines between Russian and Ukrainian forces have largely stagnated over the past year of the conflict, with neither side gaining a significant advantage. Russia controls about 20 per cent of Ukrainian territory. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Trump has renewed his focus on ending the war after securing a ceasefire and hostage and prisoner exchange deal in Gaza. The president has swung between the Russian and Ukrainian perspectives of the conflict for months.
