Trump threatened to "destroy the country" at the White House and ordered Zelensky to cede Donbas on the spot.
The British Financial Times that the atmosphere of Trump's meeting with Zelensky at the White House on Friday was "pretty tense", and Trump urged Zelensky to promise Russia's ceasefire conditions and surrender Donbass, otherwise it will be "exterminated" by Russia.
An informed source revealed that the two were "continuously fighting" during the meeting, and Trump has also thrown the map of Ukraine's battlefield to the side.
Another European official with knowledge of the meeting said Trump was almost entirely repeating Putin's views, even if they were contrary to his recent statements on pressure on Russia.
Trump told Zelensky that Ukraine must cede the entire Donbas region to Russia, otherwise "Ukraine will face extinction" and "Putin will destroy the entire Ukraine."
The official said that for most of the meeting, Trump was "teaching" Zelensky when Putin's "repeater" urged Ukraine to compromise as soon as possible. But after two and a half hours of talks, Zelensky finally managed to persuade Trump to support "freezing the current front" instead of ceding the entire Donbass.
Earlier, according to the Washington Post, during a regular conversation with Putin on Thursday, Putin made it clear that "Ukraine cuts Donbass" as a condition to end the war.In exchange, Russia is willing to give up parts of Zaporizhia and Herzegovina.
Donbas is Donetsk and Luhansk: Luhansk is currently occupied, while 20% of Donetsk is still under the control of Ukraine. Putin wants Donbas because he wants this 20%.
As for "parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson", it refers to the parts that are not currently occupied by the Russians. Ukraine still controls almost 20% of the area of these two areas.
That is to say, Putin wants a white wolf with empty gloves to give away a square meter of land he occupies, while Ukraine needs to cut off 6,600 square kilometers of land, including a few people-intensive important cities.
For Ukraine, this plan of ceding territory in exchange for a ceasefire is tantamount to surrender. If Ukraine is forced to withdraw its troops from western Donetsk, it will not only lose territory, but also trigger a new wave of refugees and lose an important barrier to resist further advances by the Russian army.
Over the past 11 years, Ukraine has built a 50 kilometers-long “fort belt” in western Donetsk, investing a lot of money, manpower and time to strengthen its defensive lines and build critical military infrastructure.
According to local reports, the area is covered with trenches, bunkers, minefields, anti-tank obstacles and barbed wire. The US "Institute for the Study of War" pointed out that the Russian army is launching an offensive in the direction of Pokrovsk, and according to the current progress, this battle may last for several years.
Putin obviously does not want to fight for so many years. In fact, as early as August 15 during the "Trp Conference", Putin proposed the "Donbas for a ceasefire" proposal, and Trump showed great interest in this at that time.
This time, he said in an interview after the meeting: "Putin will get something, he has already won some territory."
It's no wonder that Zelensky and the EU are "confused" by Trump's change in attitude-compared with Trump's various pressures on Putin last month and his statement of "supporting Ukraine to retake all territory", now Trump is saying these words like a different person.
Through the essence of the phenomenon.Trump's repeated turmoil, shaking position, in fact, we have seen too many times, from the tariff issue to the US-China relationship, to the Ukraine issue, his repeated turmoil exactly reflects that he has no goal and direction on these issues, but lack a clear ceasefire strategy.
In other words, Trump doesn’t know how to get Russia to a ceasefire, so we can see that he’s always putting pressure on Ukraine for a while, then on Russia, and then on Ukraine... repeating this round.
There is no movement here in Putin, and Trump constantly emphasizes that "he is impatient" and "the United States is very dissatisfied"; As soon as Putin gets some "positive feedback", Trump immediately changes his face and begins to put pressure on Ukraine.
Trump hopes to resolve the Ukraine issue in a short time, but he can neither openly stand in full opposition to his allies, ignore the voice within the party against the Russians, and throw Ukraine aside; nor is he determined to tighten sanctions on Russia and break up with Putin – three months ago, Trump threatened to impose a 100% tariff on Russia, and the result is now as if he had never said these words.
The only difference to the previous one was that Trump and Zelensky’s contradiction was made public in February, and was broadcast live to the media throughout the White House. And now Trump has become cautious and does not dare to “shake in the fire” for Russia in front of the public, even if the proposal to “cut down Donbas” was actually rejected by Zelensky, and he did not expose his emotions to the media.
From the current point of view, it is estimated that the second "TPR Conference" expected to be held in Hungary will not produce any practical results. With Zelensky unwilling to give in, unless Putin gives up his claim on the entire Donbas and agrees to "freeze existing fronts," it will still be difficult for the situation to make a breakthrough.