Washington: In what is being termed as a setback for his country, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been asked by US president Donald Trump to end the war on Russia’s terms.
Trump is reported to have urged Zelenskyy to cede territory to Russia in exchange for peace. The US president also declined to supply Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, frustrating Zelenskyy further.
The US president reportedly warned the Ukrainian president that his country would get destroyed unless Kyiv agrees to Moscow’s terms to end the war. Trump is also said to have discarded battlefield maps and echoed Russian talking points, ultimately declining to supply long-range missiles to Ukraine.
According to the Financial Times, the closed door meeting between the two leaders descended several times into a “shouting match”, with Trump “cursing all the time”, as reported by The Times of India.
During the meeting, Trump apparently told Zelenskyy to surrender the entire Donbas region to Russia, though he ater endorsed a freeze of the current front lines. The meeting occurred amid a renewed push by Trump to end Russia’s war following the ceasefire secured between Israel and Hamas.
Zelenskyy and his team visited the White House hoping to persuade Trump to supply them with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles. During the meeting, Trump appeared to have adopted many of Russia’s talking points verbatim.
Trump has spoken to Russian president Vladimir Putin over the phone before meeting Zelenskyy. Putin had reportedly told him that the conflict was a “special operation, not even a war”. This is what Trump relayed to Zelenskyy.
“If [Putin] wants it, he will destroy you,” Trump said, according to an official. The US president also said that he was ‘sick’ of seeing the map of the frontline of Ukraine repeatedly. “This red line, I don’t even know where this is. I’ve never been there,” he said.