Trump: ‘Never discussed’ Zelensky ceding region to Putin

President Trump denied discussing Ukraine surrendering the eastern region to Russia during a closed-door meeting Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, following reports of a tense White House encounter in which Trump pushed Moscow’s maximalist demands.

“No, we never discussed it. We think that what they should do is just stop at the lines where they are, the battle lines,” Trump told reporters Sunday on Air Force One.

Multiple reports earlier Sunday said the president urged Zelensky to cede the Donbas region during a tense meeting Friday at the White House. As of August, Russia occupied roughly 88 percent of the eastern region, according to Reuters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly has made full control of the Donbas a key condition to ending the war; it’s a nonstarter for Ukraine, which views withdrawal from its heavily fortified front lines in the east as opening the rest of the country to Russian aggression.

Prior to meeting with Zelensky, Trump spoke via phone with Putin on Thursday. In a post on Truth Social, Trump called the conversation with Putin “productive” and said they agreed to meet in Budapest, Hungary. A date for the meeting has not been set.

According to the Financial Times, Trump told Zelensky on Friday that “if [Putin] wants it, he will destroy you” and at one point tossed aside Ukraine’s maps of the battlefield, saying, “This red line, I don’t even know where this is. I’ve never been there.”

In addition to the Donbas, which includes the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, Russia also controls parts of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. It also has held Crimea since 2014.

After meeting with Zelensky at the United Nations General Assembly last month, Trump said on Truth Social that Ukraine “is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form.”

On Sunday, though, the president changed his tune, calling for a swift end to the war that began when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The president said Donbas should “be cut up the way it is,” and the two sides “can negotiate something later on.”

“They should stop right now at the battle lines,” Trump said. “Go home, stop killing people and be done.”

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About The Author

Dele Fashomi

Dele Fashomi, seasoned journalist and communication teacher, is a holder of Master of Arts degree in Communication and Language Arts from the University of Ibadan in 1992/93.

Earlier, he had bagged a Bachelor degree from the same university in 1984, after which he proceeded to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, in 1990, for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism.

He had done many courses in communication, including the EU-BBC Editing Course in 2002.

Mr. Fashomi combines effectively the practice, research and teaching of communication. And to date, he has published two academic works in communication: Issues in Communication Technology and Policy (2010) and Economic and Social Issues in Advertising and PR (2013).

He had his first break in the Nigerian media in Concord Newspapers in 1990 and today, he has over two and half decades experience earned in several newspapers.

He has been part of many start-ups, such as The Republic (1987), The Comet (1999), The Anchor 2001 – 2002; Sun Newspapers (2003); Westerner newsmagazine (2005 – 2010) as Editor; National Life (2011) as Sunday Editor, and Newswatch Newspapers (2012- 2016) as Daily Editor.

Dele Fashomi is now the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Newstide247.com newspaper online, which he started in July 2015. He is also into biography writing, with many books in his trail, some of which he wrote alone and one he co- authored with his mentor, Mr Dare Babarinsa, entitled: Olabiyi Durojaiye – DARE TO BE DiFFERENT. He also guided and collaborated with Pa Olatunji Odusanya in writing his autobiography – AGAINST ALL ODDS. There are many other books in the works under his pen.

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