Trump shouts threats at Zelensky to cede territory to Russia: "If Putin wants it, he'll destroy you."
The meeting between the two at the White House on Friday was very tense, with the US president assuming Putin's position.
Washington / Brussels / LondonAlthough this time without television cameras as witnesses, the last Friday's meeting at the White House between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky ended, more or less, like the one in February, with the US president shouting and "cursing constantly." This was stated on Monday by the Financial Times, from sources familiar with the meeting, in which Trump urged Zelensky to accept Russia's conditions for ending the war, warning him that Putin had told him he would "destroy" Ukraine if he didn't agree. In February, Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance publicly humiliated Zelensky, chiding him for his alleged lack of gratitude to the United States and ultimately inviting him to leave at the end of what Trump called "good television".
Friday's meeting, in which Zelensky arrived with the intention of convincing Trump that he sold Tomahawk missiles to continue putting pressure on the Kremlin, had been scheduled after a few weeks in which the tycoon seemed to have changed his mind about the conflict and the fate of Ukraine, hinting at a speech closer to Kiev's interests. He had even commented on the very poor prospects for the Russian economy, and the carnage that the war was causing weekly among the ranks of the Kremlin military. But, crucially, the meeting with the Ukrainian president also took place twenty-four hours after Trump and Putin spoke on the phone and scheduled a new summit, in Budapest, for the next two weeks. Once again, the Republican changed his mind, according to the British newspaper's account.
According to the sources mentioned in the Financial Times, the US president rudely threw maps of the front lines in Ukraine at him, insisted that Zelenskyy should cede the entire Donbas region to Putin, and repeatedly repeated the arguments the Russian leader had used in the aforementioned call the day before. One of the European insiders familiar with the White House discussions claims that Trump told Zelenskyy that Putin had explained to him that the conflict was a "special operation, not even a war," and that the Ukrainian leader should make a deal or face destruction. "If [Putin] wants it, he'll destroy you."
"I don't even know where this red line is. I've never been there," Trump reportedly said in reference to the maps of the front lines in Ukraine, according to the official's account. This same Sunday night, speaking to reporters, Trump said that both Ukraine and Russia "should freeze the front lines" at the current location and withdraw, which would mean ceding a significant amount of ground to Russia for Kiev. But Putin doesn't even accept this, and the Kremlin spokesman already rejected the possibility of freezing the front line this Monday. The Russian press assumes that Putin will not give in at the upcoming Budapest meeting.
The Donbas, in dispute
Zelensky has not directly addressed the revelations. Financial Times about his meeting with Trump, but admitted on Monday that the White House discussion was "frank" and suggested that Washington was making a mistake by accepting Hungary, Putin's closest European ally, as the venue for the meeting with the Russian president.
For his part, Trump told Fox News on Sunday that he was confident of a quick end to the conflict, adding that Putin "will take something; he's gained some territory." Reports of the phone call between Trump and Putin indicate that the Russian made a new proposal to the White House on Thursday, under which Ukraine would cede parts of the eastern Donbas region it still controls in exchange for small areas of the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia. But ceding the rest of Donbas that is still under Ukrainian control is unthinkable for Ukraine, as it would hand over to Moscow a territory that it has only partially occupied for more than a decade and has not been able to conquer since Putin ordered the invasion in 2022.
The Europeans and Zelensky revealed it in August. The fear that after the summit in Alaska Trump would again blackmail the Ukrainian was dispelled, to the surprise of the European delegation, with the Republican's rapprochement with Kiev's requests. The meeting in Alaska, according to sources familiar with the conversation in Financial Times, cooled relations between Moscow and Washington by leaving Trump without any trophies to display. In fact, The Kremlin had recently expressed concern about the Trump administration's approach to Ukraine.
With Friday's closed-door booing, Trump once again demonstrated that the only reliable aspect of his character is his unpredictability. It's also a reflection of how the US president has been navigating the negotiations for a war that has become entrenched, and that with each lengthening day, his failed claim of ending the conflict in a matter of hours is being criticized.
The EU amends Trump's plan.
The information of the Financial Times has caught the European Union off guard. At the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting, most EU ministers and leaders avoided directly criticizing the US president when asked about the meeting between Trump and Putin, but they did criticize the peace agreement that Trump wants the Ukrainian president to sign. Thus, although the head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, assured the media that the EU "sees President Trump's efforts to bring peace to Ukraine," she did not approve of the plan that the White House wants Zelensky to accept, stating that Putin "doesn't really want peace" and that "he will only negotiate if he sees fit."
The EU leader also demanded a seat for Zelensky at the potential meeting between Trump and Putin in Budapest. "It is they [Putin and Zelensky] who ultimately have to reach an agreement," Kallas pointed out. Along the same lines, the head of European diplomacy expressed skepticism about the success of the meeting in Hungary and criticized the request for Zelensky to give up part of Ukraine's territory. "It's negative that the aggressor gets what he wants; it sends a negative signal to all aggressors around the world," added Kallas, who also asserted that there is currently a consensus among member states to defend Ukraine's territorial integrity and not cede any part of it to Russia.
