U.S. President Donald Trump urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to surrender territory to Russia during a tense meeting in Washington, according to sources familiar with the talks.
The encounter left the Ukrainian side disheartened after Trump reportedly refused to supply long-range Tomahawk missiles and instead proposed offering security guarantees to both Kyiv and Moscow.
Sources said Trump floated a ceasefire along existing frontlines when Zelenskiy rejected the idea of conceding land to Russia. The proposal, later echoed publicly by both leaders, marked a sharp turn in Washington’s tone on the war.
Zelenskiy had hoped to secure advanced weapons capable of striking targets deep inside Russian territory but left the meeting empty-handed. “It was pretty bad,” one source said. “The message was, ‘Your country will freeze, and your country will be destroyed’ if you don’t make a deal.”
Officials suggested Trump’s position may have been swayed by a recent call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who reportedly proposed a territorial swap involving Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. U.S. representatives are said to have relayed that plan to Zelenskiy, who flatly rejected it.
Ukraine considers its remaining hold in Donetsk and Luhansk strategically vital, warning that surrendering those regions would expose the rest of the country to future attacks.
“We will give nothing to the aggressor, and we will forget nothing,” Zelenskiy declared in his nightly address, reaffirming Ukraine’s defiance against Moscow’s ambitions.
Before meeting Zelenskiy, Trump said he planned to meet Putin in Budapest. Russian and U.S. diplomats are expected to discuss preparations for the summit in the coming days.
Neither the White House nor Zelenskiy’s office commented on the meeting.
