But during the talks with Zelenskyy, according to the person familiar with the matter quoted above, the “Americans said that Putin wants to keep fighting, and he has a strong war machine.”
“Then [U.S. special envoy Steve] Witkoff entered the conversation, and said that the Russians aim to take the entire Donbas [region in eastern Ukraine] … And there was a feeling in the room that the Americans were testing the Ukrainians and what they [would] agree on,” the person said.
Giving up the well-fortified Donbas region is a no-go for Ukraine, which fears that doing so would open a clear route for Russia to take further territory more easily. It’s not the first time the Trump administration has suggested land swapping that could favor Russian strategic aims, though the U.S. president has more recently talked up Kyiv’s prospects in the war.
“Zelenskyy did not agree that Ukraine has to give up land that Russia did not manage to occupy. In the end, Trump ended the meeting, saying: ‘OK, let’s try to end this on the current line,’” the person mentioned quoted above said.
The U.S. president’s seemingly renewed credulity regarding Putin’s take on the war will frustrate European leaders, who have been working to convince Trump that Russia’s public declarations of willingness to end the conflict it started are a charade.
“With a single phone call, Putin appears to have changed President Trump’s mind on Ukraine once again,” a second person familiar with the negotiations told POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook.