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President Donald Trump supports Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s proposal for Moscow to take full control of the Donbas region and freeze the front lines elsewhere for an agreement with Ukraine, a European diplomat confirmed to Fox News.
Donbas had a pre-war population of 150,000 and includes the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
After meeting with Putin on Friday in Alaska, Trump told European allies that the Russian president reiterated that he wants the key Luhansk and Donetsk regions, but that he appeared open to the possibility of ending the stalemate in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson along with a freeze along the front lines.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously rejected the idea of surrendering the territory in the Donbas.
Zelenskyy has refused to withdraw from the remaining 30% of Donetsk that Ukraine still controls. He has said that doing so would be unconstitutional, and the territory could be used as a staging ground for later Russian attacks.
The Ukrainian leader is scheduled to meet with Trump at the White House on Monday.
Trump also reversed his support for a ceasefire and instead is seeking a peace agreement after the meeting with Putin, who has long said Moscow is not interested in a temporary truce and is looking for a long-term settlement that supports the Kremlin’s interests.
After calls with Zelenskyy and European leaders, Trump said Saturday on social media that “it was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told ZDF television that Trump said Russia “seems to be prepared to conduct the negotiations based on the so-called line of contact and not the administrative boundaries.”
In a statement after the call with Trump, major European leaders did not address whether they preferred a peace deal over a ceasefire.
The leaders said they “welcomed President Trump’s efforts to stop the killing in Ukraine, end Russia’s war of aggression, and achieve just and lasting peace.”
Putin described his talks with Trump in Alaska as “very frank.”
“We, of course, respect the position of the American administration, which sees the need for a speedy end to military actions,” Putin said at the follow-up meeting at the Kremlin, adding that “we would like to move to resolving all issues by peaceful means.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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