In a tense and volatile meeting at the White House on Friday, US President Donald Trump urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept Russia’s terms for ending the war, warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin had threatened to “destroy” Ukraine if it did not comply, the Financial Times reported.
According to sources cited by the Financial Times, the meeting devolved into repeated shouting matches, with Trump “cursing all the time.” The US President reportedly dismissed maps of the Ukrainian front lines, demanded Zelenskyy surrender the entire Donbas region, and echoed Putin’s talking points from a phone call the day before.
Zelenskyy had arrived in Washington seeking long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, but Trump declined the request, the report said. The encounter mirrored a similarly combative meeting in February, where Trump and Vice President JD Vance criticized Zelenskyy for what they described as a lack of gratitude toward the US.
European officials briefed on the meeting said Trump repeated Putin’s rhetoric, including the claim that the war was merely a “special operation.” Trump reportedly told Zelenskyy, “If [Putin] wants it, he will destroy you,” and dismissed battlefield maps, saying, “This red line, I don’t even know where this is. I’ve never been there.”
Putin’s latest proposal, delivered to Trump on Thursday, would require Ukraine to surrender parts of Donbas in exchange for small areas in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. The offer marks a slight shift from Putin’s August meeting with Trump in Alaska, where he demanded full control of Donbas to freeze the front lines.
Ukrainian officials rejected the proposal, with Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, stating: “To give [the Donbas] to Russia without a fight is unacceptable for Ukrainian society, and Putin knows that.” He added that the move aims to “cause division within Ukraine and undermine our unity”.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment on the Financial Times report.