Russia wants Ukraine to give up the region of Donetsk in exchange for peace. The demand is said to have been made during Thursday's phone call between Presidents Trump and Putin, according to sources, including The Washington Post.
The conversation took place the day before Trump's meeting with Zelenskyj at the White House. The two leaders and their delegations answered reporters' questions before a joint lunch in the White House cabinet room.
"Loud quarrels"
But any potential agreement was completely blown away when the doors closed, reports the Financial Times, citing sources and European diplomats with insight into the talks. Trump is said to have repeated President Putin's demands almost verbatim and said that Putin can "destroy" Ukraine if the country does not agree to the demands.
"The meeting between the US and Ukrainian presidents deteriorated several times into 'loud quarrels', where Trump 'swore all the time'," say people with insight into the event, writes the British Financial Times.
The bad mood worsened when the Ukrainian delegation presented maps they had brought from the region.
On one occasion, the US President took a map of the battlefield and threw it aside, the newspaper writes on Sunday.
Russian press
Trump's new-old stance on the issue of peace on Moscow's terms and Ukrainian concessions reappeared on Sunday in an interview with the TV company Fox News. Trump said that Putin "will take something, he has conquered some areas". Trump's statements came ahead of the planned, but not confirmed, summit with Putin in the Hungarian capital Budapest.
Russia has been trying to take over the strategically important Donetsk for eleven years and currently controls large parts of the county. According to source information to The Washington Post, Putin wants all of Donetsk and in exchange give up control over Cherson and Zaporizjzja, which Russia partially occupies at present.
Russia has never had full control over Donetsk, the Ukrainian forces have pushed back against the attacking forces. Over the past year, the front line has moved marginally back and forth in the area.
