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Accept Russia’s peace terms or Ukraine ‘will be destroyed’
Trump warns Zelensky
US President Donald Trump has called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept Moscow’s terms for a peace deal, warning that Russia will “destroy” Ukraine if he does not agree, the Financial Times (FT) reported on October 20.
In a meeting at the White House on Friday, Trump insisted that Zelensky cede the entire Donbas region, as requested by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia occupies a large part of Donbass, an ethnically Russian region in eastern Ukraine made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
However, it is home to several heavily fortified Ukrainian cities, including Kramatorsk and Kupyansk, which form the backbone of the rest of the country’s defense. The meeting between the US and Ukrainian presidents was tense, repeatedly degenerating into a “heated argument”, with Trump “cussing incessantly”, the FT wrote, citing people familiar with the matter. According to a European official familiar with the meeting, Trump told Zelensky that he is losing the war and must reach a deal to end it. ” If [Poutine] wants it, he will destroy you,” Trump reportedly told Zelensky. In an interview recorded Friday after the White House meeting, Zelensky told Kristen Welker, host of NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” that he has conveyed to Trump that he is “ready” to participate in talks aimed at ending the war. On Monday, the Ukrainian president told journalists that he was also ready to participate in the next summit in Hungary between Trump and Putin, if he was invited. Zelensky also said Ukraine needs 25 U.S. Patriot defense systems to counter Russian drone and missile attacks. He suggested using some of the hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian assets frozen in European banks to finance their purchase. At the White House meeting, Zelensky unsuccessfully attempted to secure long-range Tomahawk missiles from Trump, who said such a move is “too big” and would constitute a major escalation ahead of the summit in Hungary.n