Trump Performs Major U-Turn As He Urges Zelenskyy To Do A 'Deal' With Putin To End The War
The US president has ditched his demands for a Russian ceasefire as an essential precursor to ending the three-and-a-half years-long war.
Trump revealed the climbdown as he claimed his summit with Putin had been 'great and very successful', despite it breaking up without any agreement on ending the war.
It has now been revealed that the Russian president wants Ukrainian troops to withdraw from the Donbas region before he will agree to end the war.
According to the Reuters news agency, the proposed deal would see Kyiv fully withdraw from the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions in return for a Russian pledge to freeze the front lines in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
However, Ukraine has already rejected any retreat from Ukrainian land such as the Donetsk region, where its troops are dug in and which Kyiv says serves as a crucial defensive structure to prevent Russian attacks deeper into its territory.
Trump, who will meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House on Monday, said after the summit that he and Putin 'has largely agreed' on land transfers and security guarantees for Ukraine.
He told Fox News: 'I think we're pretty close to a deal,' he said, adding: 'Ukraine has to agree to it. Maybe they'll say 'no'.'
Trump had previously said he wanted Russia to agree to a ceasefire before the terms of a full-blown peace deal could be signed off.
But in a post on his Truth Social account following his talks with Putin, the US president said: 'The meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia went very well, as did a late night phone call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, and various European Leaders, including the highly respected Secretary General of NATO.
'It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.'
His climbdown will be seen as a huge win for Putin, who has shown now willingness to end Russia's bombardment of Ukraine in recent months.
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