Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 following a sham referendum and did the same in 2022 for four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia – even though its forces have not fully captured them.
A source briefed on a phone call between Trump and European leaders on Saturday told AFP that the US leader was “inclined to support” a Russian demand to be given territory it has not yet captured in the Donbas, an area that includes the Donetsk and Lugansk regions and which has seen the deadliest battles of the war.
In exchange, the source cited Trump as saying, Moscow would agree to “freeze” the front line in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where Russian forces hold swathes of territory but not the regional capitals.
Russia has until now insisted that Ukraine pull its forces out of all four regions as a precondition to any deal.
“CAPITULATION”
There is concern in Europe that Washington could pressure Ukraine to accept Russia’s terms.
“For peace to prevail, pressure must be applied to the aggressor, not the victim of aggression,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Sunday.
Macron said: “There is only one state proposing a peace that would be a capitulation: Russia.”
Zelenskyy has repeatedly pushed back against ceding territory, but said he is ready to discuss the issue in the context of a trilateral summit with Trump and Putin.
Trump has raised the possibility of such a meeting, but Russia has played down the prospect.
Moscow’s forces have been advancing gradually but steadily in Ukraine, particularly in the Donetsk region.
Russian attacks on Kharkiv killed three people and wounded dozens more, Ukrainian authorities said Monday, while a separate overnight attack on the Sumy region near the border wounded two others.
