US President Donald Trump has denied claims that he pressured his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy to agree to hand over all of Donbas to Russia.

Source: Reuters, citing three sources familiar with the course of the talks

Details : According to Reuters, Friday's meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy took place in a tense atmosphere. Sources said the discussion had ended with Trump's position on a "deal where we are" – effectively freezing the war along the current line of contact.

"We think that what they should do is just stop at the lines where they are, the battle lines," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday 19 October. Meanwhile, he denied suggesting that Zelenskyy hand over all of Donbas to Russia.

"Let it be cut the way it is. It's cut up right now. I think 78% of the land is already taken by Russia," the US president said in response to a Reuters correspondent's question.

Trump added that the sides could "negotiate something later on down the line", hinting at the possibility of future talks.

According to Reuters sources, the meeting was a disappointment for the Ukrainian side. Zelenskyy had hoped to persuade the US leader to provide Kyiv with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of striking deep inside Russian territory. However, as US Vice President JD Vance said on Sunday, Trump has not yet made a final decision on the issue.

Several sources said the conversation was far from diplomatic.

"It was pretty bad," one source said, claiming that Trump's message boiled down to "your country will freeze, and your country will be destroyed" if Ukraine did not strike a deal with Russia. Another source denied that the word "destroyed" was used but confirmed that Trump repeatedly resorted to profanity.

The sources got the impression that Trump's stance had been strongly influenced by his recent conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. According to the Financial Times (FT), Putin proposed a territorial swap during that discussion: Ukraine would give up Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in exchange for small parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts. One of the FT's sources said that Trump had told Zelenskyy that Putin had threatened to destroy Ukraine if it refused.

According to one of Reuters' sources, giving up this territory would leave the rest of Ukraine far more vulnerable to future Russian attacks and would amount to "suicide".

Among American officials, Steve Witkoff, Trump's Special Envoy to the Middle East, was the most forceful in urging the Ukrainian side to accept the Russian proposal. One source said that he had argued that a significant proportion of the population in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts is Russian-speaking.

Background:

• After a meeting with Zelenskyy on 17 October, Trump said that Ukraine and Russia "should stop where they are".
• Zelenskyy agreed with Trump that "we should stop where we are now".
• Axios reported that during the meeting, Trump made it clear he is not yet considering providing Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles.
• According to The Washington Post, during his conversation with Trump, Putin demanded full control over Donetsk Oblast to end the war, hinting that he might concede parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts in return.
• Zelenskyy ruled out giving up any additional unoccupied territories to Russia.

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