Piece of puzzle: Putin demands key Ukraine region in return for peace

Moscow [Russia], October 19 : Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a phone call this past week with US President Donald Trump, demanded that Kyiv surrender full control of Donetsk, a strategically vital region in eastern Ukraine, as a condition for ending the war, said two senior officials familiar with the conversation, the Washington Post reported.

Putin has tried and failed to conquer the territory for 11 years, repeatedly repulsed by Ukrainian forces who are deeply entrenched in an area they believe is a major bulwark against a speedy Russian advance westward toward their capital.

Putin's focus on Donetsk suggests he is not backing away from past demands that have left the conflict in a stalemate, despite Trump's optimism about securing a deal, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive closed-door discussions. Russia or Russian-backed separatists have claimed parts of the region since 2014, but they have never been able to conquer the entirety of the region by force.

Trump has not publicly commented on Putin's demand for all of Donetsk, which has not previously been reported.

Trump did not endorse the Russian request in his public statement Friday after a high-stakes West Wing meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He plans to meet Putin in Hungary in the coming weeks to continue discussions about how to end the war, as per Washington Post.

"It is time to stop the killing, and make a DEAL! Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts. They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide!" Trump wrote on social media Friday after the meeting with Zelenskyy.

In the call between Trump and Putin, the Russian leader suggested he would be willing to surrender parts of two other regions of Ukraine he has partly conquered, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, in exchange for full control of Donetsk, the officials told Washington Post.

That is slightly less of a sweeping territorial claim than he made in August at a summit between Trump and Putin in Anchorage. Some White House officials portrayed that as progress, according to one of the two senior officials, who was briefed on the Putin call.

Ukrainians are unlikely to view it that way, said the other official, a senior European diplomat. "It's like selling them their own leg in exchange for nothing," the diplomat said.

Neither the White House nor the Kremlin immediately responded to a request for comment.

The front lines between Russian and Ukrainian forces have largely stagnated over the past year of the conflict, with neither side gaining significant advantage. Russia controls about 20 percent of Ukrainian territory. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Trump has renewed his focus on ending the war after securing a ceasefire and hostage and prisoner exchange deal in Gaza. The president has swung between the Russian and Ukrainian perspectives of the conflict for months.

Ukrainians had hoped to walk out of the Friday meeting with long-range Tomahawk missiles but exited empty-handed.

The officials said that Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff pressed the Ukrainian delegation about handing over Donetsk during the meeting Friday, noting that the region is mostly Russian-speaking, a frequent Kremlin talking point that Ukrainian and European officials view as sympathetic to Russia's demands.

Many Ukrainians including Zelenskyy himself grew up speaking Russian as their first language, and within Ukrainian society speaking Russian has not historically been a sign of sympathy toward Moscow. Ukrainians have moved toward using the Ukrainian language in the years since Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

Witkoff was the main White House interlocutor with the Kremlin ahead of the Anchorage meeting, which European officials said led to what they believed was a misunderstanding of Russia's demands and a failure to make significant progress following the encounter.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the top administration official charged with preparing the upcoming Budapest summit with Putin, which was welcomed by Kyiv, Washington Post reported.

Ukraine has endorsed Trump's call for a ceasefire at the current front lines of the conflict ahead of negotiations for a more sustainable end to the fighting. Officials privately say they accept that Russia is likely to retain de facto control of the territory it has captured and that they are seeking robust security assurances from Washington and Europeans to deter Russia from restarting the war.

Ukraine is facing another tough winter with Russia targeting its energy infrastructure, a tactic Kyiv has also adopted against its enemy.

Trump had toyed with sending the powerful Tomahawk weapons to Ukraine ahead of the meeting, but he appeared to back down following the phone call Thursday with Putin. Speaking alongside Zelenskyy on Friday, Trump said that he hoped to end the war without needing to send the missiles.

Asked on Friday whether Putin was trying to buy more time, Trump said he was not concerned.

"I've been played all my life by the best of them, and I came out really well," he said, adding it was "all right" if it took a little time. "But I think that I'm pretty good at this stuff."

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