Washington Post: Putin hinted that he would trade the Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions for Donetsk

Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that Donald Trump agree to Ukraine ceding the entire Donetsk region to Russia in exchange for a ceasefire, two senior officials familiar with the conversation reported to the Washington Post.

The conversation between the leaders of the two superpowers took place ahead of Friday's meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.

Putin reportedly signaled his willingness to withdraw from parts of the occupied territories of Zaporizhzhya and Kherson if Kyiv hands over all of Donetsk. The US president did not mention this demand in his public statement after the meeting with Zelensky, saying only that “it is time to make a deal” and end the bloodshed.

Donetsk is a strategically important region. The Ukrainian army considers the areas it still controls in the Donetsk region to be the most important obstacle to Russia's rapid advance westward toward the capital.

Some US officials see the proposal as a step toward a possible diplomatic solution. Others, including a European diplomat, see it as trading “one's leg for nothing.”

Neither the White House nor the Kremlin has yet commented on this information. Trump and Putin are expected to meet again in Budapest in the coming weeks. They already met in Alaska in August to discuss the conflict in Ukraine and possibilities for a peace agreement. It was the first meeting between the American and Russian presidents since Trump took office in January this year.

(max)