United States President Donald Trump has called for Russia and Ukraine to freeze the war along current battle lines – a proposal that would see Moscow keep large areas of Ukrainian territory.
Trump told reporters late on Sunday that the two sides should just stop fighting and resolve the “details” over territory at future talks. The current front line runs through the Donbas region, an industrial hub.
“What I say is they should stop right now at the battle lines, go home, stop killing people and be done,” the US president said, adding that it would be difficult to negotiate details of a final resolution.
Asked about what would happen to Donbas, which has seen most of the fighting, Trump said: “Let it be cut the way it is. It’s cut up right now – I think 78 percent of the land is already taken by Russia. You leave it the way it is right now. They can negotiate something later on down the line.”
Ukraine has previously insisted on reclaiming all of its land. Trump himself asserted last month that Ukraine can win militarily and recapture all of the territories occupied by Russia, which also includes the Crimean Peninsula and other areas in eastern Ukraine.
The US president, who had promised to swiftly end the war between Russia and Ukraine, is set to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Hungary in the coming weeks.
Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House last week and said there is a chance to conclude the conflict quickly “if flexibility is shown”.
On Sunday, Zelenskyy called on Trump to apply more pressure to Putin, likening the Russian president to the Palestinian group Hamas.
“Putin is something similar but more strong than Hamas,” Zelenskyy told NBC News.
Last week, the Ukrainian president suggested that the Trump-brokered ceasefire in Gaza offered “momentum” to stop the war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy also renewed his request that the US provide Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles. Trump did not say yes to the request, Zelenskyy conceded, but he also did not say no.
Trump recently suggested that the US needs to keep its Tomahawk stockpiles for its own national security interests.
Under former President Joe Biden, the US offered unflinching support to Ukraine, with tens of billions of dollars in military, budgetary and humanitarian aid.
But Trump has been reducing assistance to Ukraine while encouraging European countries to arm Kyiv by buying US weapons.
Russia launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, citing NATO’s expansion into former Soviet republics.
Ukrainian forces succeeded in fending off the initial stages of the offensive, which aimed to capture Kyiv. But the war has turned into a protracted conflict concentrated in the eastern parts of Ukraine.
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