At White House Meeting, Zelensky Is Likely to Ask What Russia Is Willing to Concede
But the Ukrainian leader will likely come with some questions of his own. Among them: What is President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia offering to give up?
Mr. Trump's special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff, was pressed on that question during an interview Sunday with Jake Tapper on CNN. Mr. Witkoff appeared to view Russia's demand that Ukraine cede the entirety of the Donbas, including some 2,500 square miles in the Donetsk region still controlled by Kyiv, as a concession.
Earlier this year, Russian officials had been demanding the entirety of all four Ukrainian regions the Kremlin declared annexed in 2022, even though Kyiv still controlled wide swaths of them, including two regional capitals. At the time, U.S. officials saw the impractical demand as a sign that the Kremlin wasn't serious about peace.
Mr. Putin's revised ask — the entirety of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, often referred to as the Donbas — has been interpreted by Washington as a concession, even though the original proposal had been laughable to U.S. negotiators. Mr. Zelensky has rejected the idea of ceding territory.
Mr. Witkoff said Russia previously demanded the entirety of all five regions in Ukraine that the Kremlin had declared annexed, including Crimea, up to the administrative borders, but 'the Russians made some concessions at the table.'
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