Washington [US], October 20: Reuters on October 19 quoted two informed sources as saying that US President Donald Trump urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to cede part of the territory to Russia.
According to the two sources, President Trump refused to provide Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, and considered ensuring security for both Kyiv and Moscow.
After meeting with Ukraine's leader at the White House on October 17, President Trump publicly called for a ceasefire on the current front lines, a position that President Zelensky later declared his support for when speaking to reporters.
A third source confirmed that Mr. Trump made the above ceasefire proposal during the talks after Mr. Zelensky said he would not voluntarily cede any territory to Russia.
While not a disaster for Ukraine, the outcome of the talks on October 17 was clearly a disappointment for Mr. Zelensky, who had hoped to persuade the American leader to provide Kyiv with long-range Tomahawk missiles capable of striking deep into Russian territory.
Mr. Trump has not yet decided whether to provide Tomahawk missiles, according to US Vice President JD Vance told a group of reporters on the evening of October 19.
In the weeks leading up to the White House meeting on October 17, there were signs that Mr. Trump was downplaying his efforts to pressure Kyiv and Moscow, instead offering full support to Ukraine. Reuters pointed out that after meeting with Mr. Zelensky on the sidelines of the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly in September, Mr. Trump said that Ukraine could regain all the territory it lost to Russia, a possibility that even Kyiv considered remote.
But the talks on October 17 showed that Mr. Trump may once again push for a deal as quickly as possible, even if it has terms that are uncomfortable for Kyiv, according to Reuters.
US officials have repeatedly raised the possibility of concessions between Ukraine and Russia, an idea that President Trump has supported. Some sources said Mr. Trump said in the meeting on October 17 that reaching a deal quickly was essential.
Two sources said that President Trump was influenced by his October 16 phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Washington Post , citing several sources, revealed that in the October 16 phone call, President Putin proposed a territorial exchange, in which Ukraine would cede the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine in exchange for small parts of the two southern Ukrainian provinces of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson that are controlled by Russia.
One of the sources also revealed that US officials proposed exactly that kind of territorial exchange to Mr. Zelensky on October 17. Two sources confirmed that US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff was among the most active in urging Ukraine to agree to the Russian proposal. One of the sources added that Mr. Witkoff mentioned that Donetsk and Luhansk have significant Russian-speaking communities.
Ukrainians see huge strategic value in the Donetsk and Luhansk territories they still hold, and believe giving them up would leave the rest of Ukraine much more vulnerable to Russian attacks, according to Reuters, citing one of the people briefed on the Trump-Zelensky meeting. The source argued that giving up western Donetsk and Luhansk would be "suicidal."
There has been no reaction from relevant parties to the above disclosed information.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
