Vladimir Putin (left) told Donald Trump that he would end the war if Ukraine surrenders the Donetsk region to Russia. Photo / Getty Images
Donald Trump supports Vladimir Putin’s demand that Ukraine surrender its most valuable region to Russia in order to end the war.
The Russian leader wants full control of Donetsk, the mineral-rich eastern oblast, including parts that are currently held by Ukraine within the wider Donbas region.
In return, Putin said he would freeze the front line and promised not to take any more territory.
Putin relayed his demands at a high-stakes meeting in Alaska with Trump, who will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington on Monday (local time) to discuss the offer.
Trump will tell Zelenskyy that giving up land is part of the price for peace and the quickest way to end the war.
A source with knowledge of the matter said Putin “de facto demands that Ukraine leave Donbas”, which consists of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine. “Trump is inclined to support it,” the source said.
In return, the United States President has offered security guarantees to Ukraine if a peace deal is secured. As with Nato’s Article 5 mutual defence clause, such guarantees would mean the US and Ukraine’s European allies would be obliged to respond to a future Russian attack.
While the proposed protections stop short of making Ukraine a Nato member, it marks the first time Trump has indicated he would join the so-called Coalition of the Willing, led by Britain, France and Germany.
A Republican source close to Trump told the Telegraph: “The President wants to stop the killing and end the war. That’s the bottom line. Negotiations over territory are part of that process. The ball is in Zelenskyy’s court.”
Sir Keir Starmer and other coalition leaders will meet on Sunday before the Washington summit.
European leaders are understood to be concerned that Zelenskyy will reject any offer that involves ceding land and provoke an angry reaction from Trump, with whom he clashed in the Oval Office earlier this year.
“Trump wants this done as soon as possible and I don’t think it will take long,” a European official said.
It remains likely that Ukraine will reject Putin’s terms. Zelenskyy has made clear that he is not willing to discuss ceding Ukrainian territory, and European Governments have said that any decisions surrounding exchanges of land should be made by Kyiv alone.
A diplomatic source said: “Germany, France and the UK are preparing for Monday’s talks, including how best to support Zelenskyy and how not to push Trump into a corner.”
Another added: “The worst thing for all will be if the visit causes a public reaction from President Trump that we can’t walk back from.”
Downing St stressed that any agreement that involves land swaps with Russia can be agreed only with Zelenskyy in the room.
On Saturday night (local time), Zelenskyy issued a statement about the summit.
He said: “Thank you for the support! All the points mentioned are important to achieve a truly sustainable and reliable peace.
“We see that Russia rebuffs numerous calls for a ceasefire and has not yet determined when it will stop the killing.
“This complicates the situation. If they lack the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater – peaceful co-existence with its neighbours for decades.
“But together, we are working for peace and security. Stopping the killing is a key element of stopping the war.
“Today, co-ordination with partners has been ongoing throughout the day. Tomorrow, calls are also already scheduled.
“We are preparing for Monday’s meeting with President Trump and I am grateful for the invitation.
“It is important that everyone agrees there needs to be a conversation at the level of leaders to clarify all the details and determine which steps are necessary and will work.
“We in Ukraine welcome the principled statement of the Nordic-Baltic partners and are grateful for their very significant assistance. The unity of all strengthens each one!” he concluded.
It is understood that Britain will not get involved in discussions on the extent to which Ukraine has to give up territory under any peace deal.
No 10, however, was upbeat about Trump’s agreement to provide security guarantees, hailing it as a significant breakthrough in the process.
On Saturday night (local time), UK officials were tight-lipped on whether the country’s Prime Minister will join Zelenskyy when he visits the White House on Monday.
David Lammy, the UK Foreign Secretary, spent the day calling around European counterparts to brief them before the summit.
While Russia holds the majority of Donetsk, Ukraine is still in control of large swathes of the oblast, which makes up its main line of defence in the east.
Kyiv set up its main defences, known as the “fortress belt”, around four cities near the region’s borders in 2014.
Surrendering Donetsk without a fight would give Russia a staging post for future attacks into the regions of Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk in the direction of Kyiv.
In exchange for ceding this territory, Putin told Trump that he would be willing to offer his own territorial concessions to Kyiv, but did not elaborate.
Moscow previously claimed it annexed the southern regions, with the two oblasts that make up the Donbas region, despite only partially occupying them.
It is unlikely to want to relinquish its grip over the southern territories because, alongside Donetsk and Luhansk, they offer Russia a land bridge to Crimea, the peninsula Putin illegally annexed in 2014.
Withdrawing from Kharkiv and Sumy, which have less strategic value to the Kremlin, would therefore be more likely, but may not be seen as a fair swap by Kyiv and its allies.
To ease the pain of surrendering territory to Moscow, Trump said the US would be ready to participate in the “Article 5-style” security guarantee for Kyiv, referring to Nato’s mutual defence clause.
Lammy described this as a “concession on security guarantees” by Putin. The move would also strengthen Kyiv’s calls to become a fulltime member of the Nato military alliance.
Kyiv has long aspired to join Nato, but Russia has given that as one of its reasons for its war in Ukraine and Trump has repeatedly ruled out the idea.
Sources said that talk of a Nato-style pact to protect Ukraine from further Russian aggression would send a serious message to the Kremlin.
In a statement after the summit, Putin claimed he and Trump had hammered out an “understanding” on Ukraine and warned Europe not to “torpedo the nascent progress”.
On a call with Zelenskyy and European leaders, Trump said he no longer favoured their demands for a ceasefire before any talks over a more substantial peace settlement.
The US President indicated that he would attempt to secure a permanent deal first, in a move towards the Russian demands to settle the war in its entirety.
The Europeans appeared to back the idea, withdrawing a pre-agreed ceasefire demand from their statements following the Alaska talks.
It suggests that Trump and Putin forced the Europeans and Kyiv to drop the demand or risk accusations of blocking peace in the eyes of Washington.
But an EU official told the Telegraph: “Our priority remains a full and unconditional ceasefire, with a strong monitoring system that can attribute violations.”
Trump’s abrupt reversal, aligning himself with a position held by Putin, came in a social media post on Saturday (local time), reportedly taking Kyiv by surprise.
The Kremlin has long said it is not interested in a temporary truce and is instead seeking a long-term settlement that takes Russia’s interests into account.
Putin’s tabled demands include “protections” for the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine and that Russian be reinstated as an official language in Ukraine. He has claimed that military action was taken to protect Russian speakers and culture in Ukraine.
Both Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart raised the possibility of a trilateral summit with Putin, but Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said it was not discussed in Alaska. The Kremlin has long maintained that Putin would meet Zelenskyy only in the final stages of peace talks.
Kaja Kallas, the European Union foreign policy chief, said: “President Trump’s resolve to get a peace deal is vital. But the harsh reality is that Russia has no intention of ending this war any time soon.”