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Donald Trump expects Ukraine to surrender territory in any peace agreement
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Donald Trump has said he doesn’t think Ukraine will win the war against Russia, just hours after it emerged that the US president had demanded that Ukraine cede land to end the war.
“They could still win it, I don’t think they will,” the US president said during a meeting with Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese.
“But they could still win it. I never said they would win it. I said they could win anything can happen,” he added.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio will hold a phone call with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said according to Russian state news agency RIA.
It comes ahead of a critical Trump-Putin meeting, which does not yet have a date.
On Sunday, it was reported that Donald Trump has told Volodymyr Zelensky to accept Russia’s terms or risk facing destruction in an explosive meeting in Washington DC on Friday.
Trump reportedly aside maps of the Ukrainian frontline, urging Zelensky to surrender the Donbas region to Russia, seemingly adopting points Vladimir Putin made to Trump in their call the day before.
Zelensky was said to bring Trump back to endorsing a freeze of the current front lines.
Donald Trump’s quick meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin could be stalled as only a pre-meeting between the two has been tabled, CNN reported this morning.
On Thursday, Trump had announced that the two “agreed that there will be a meeting of our high level advisors, next week”.
After a lengthy call with Putin last week followed by a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump made another reversal and called on Kyiv and Moscow to “stop where they are” and end their brutal war.
“The United States’ initial meetings will be led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, together with various other people, to be designated,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Earlier, Zelensky said he hopes that Trump’s meeting in the coming weeks with Putin in Hungary — which does not support Ukraine — will pave the way for a peace deal.
New powers will allow the military to shoot down drones around UK bases, defence secretary John Healey has announced.
Drones have been sighted at military bases including some used by US forces in the UK while countries across Europe have also experienced disruption, with speculation Russia could be behind some of the incidents.
The new powers to protect military bases will be included in the Armed Forces Bill, with Mr Healey pledging to “do what’s needed to defend the British people”.
The UK sent specialist counter-drone experts to Denmark in September after suspicious activity, while last year a number of unidentified drones were spotted on multiple occasions over three airbases used by US forces in the UK – RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall, in Suffolk, and RAF Feltwell, in Norfolk.
Donald Trump has described the Russia-Ukraine conflict as the last war he has on his list to resolve, while playing down his earlier suggestions that he backed Ukraine to win.
“It’s Russia and Ukraine, and I think we’ll get there, but it’s turned out to be nasty because you have two leaders that truly hate each other,” Trump said last night as he took questions from reporters.
“They hate each other beyond all else, and it makes it actually a little bit difficult.”
On being asked if he thinks Ukraine can win the war, Trump said: “I don’t think they will, but they could still win it, I never said they would win it.”
“I said they could win, anything can happen. War is a very strange thing, a lot of bad things happen,” he said.
Just few weeks back, the US president said Ukraine could take back all the land it has lost since 2022, in what was seen as a major shift in his position.
Trump also said that the issue of providing weapons to Ukraine sounded easy, but was “a little more complicated.”
He said the US was continuing to press for a deal between Ukraine and Russia to end a war that Trump had promised to resolve immediately after taking office 10 months ago.
Ukraine’s allies are concerned over the war-hit nation’s position on the battlefield and diplomatically, amid fears that Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin could sign a bad ceasefire deal, weakening all of Europe.
The outcome of their meeting could be a disaster not just for Ukraine but also for Europe, European officials have said.
“We see president Trump’s efforts to bring peace to Ukraine. Of course all these efforts are welcome, but we don’t see Russia really wanting peace,” top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas told reporters in Luxembourg yesterday.
“Russia only understands strength.”Ukraine and its allies have long called for an immediate ceasefire with troops in place, while Moscow has demanded Ukraine cede further territory before it would halt fighting.
Putting UK boots on the ground after a Ukraine peace deal would cost “well over £100 million”, the defence secretary has said.
That cost would cover an entry package including the initial deployment of troops and aircraft and is a separate cost to the £4.5 billion in military aid allocated to Ukraine, it is understood.
During a speech in London, John Healey said the UK has been planning in detail along with its coalition of the willing partners over the last six months.
He said: “Peace is possible, and if President Trump can broker a peace, then we will be ready to help secure that peace for the long term.
“That requires us to invest and prepare our forces to be ready to deploy.
Volodymyr Zelensky has referred to his meeting with Donald Trump as a positive development despite him not getting an affirmative response on the supply of Tomahawk missiles.
“We share President Trump’s positive outlook if it leads to the end of the war,” Zelensky said.
“After many rounds of discussion over more than two hours with him and his team, his message, in my view, is positive – that we stand where we stand on the line of contact, provided all sides understand what is meant,” he said in comments to the media on Sunday.
The Ukrainian president was speaking before it emerged that Trump asked Zelensky to give up territory during their meeting.
“In my opinion, he does not want an escalation with the Russians until he meets with them,” Zelensky said in his remarks about the meeting.
European troops are “ready to deploy” to Ukraine in the coming weeks if Vladimir Putin agrees to a ceasefire, defence secretary John Healey said.
“If President Trump can broker a peace then we will be ready to help secure that peace,” Healey said, answering a question on if troops could be deployed if a deal is reached in the next two weeks.
However, Ukrainians must be the “people who will decide how and what” is negotiated in any peace talks, he said.
A Ukrainian drone attack has hit one of the world’s largest gas plants, the Orenburg in Russia, impacting neighbouring country’s Kazakhstan production in the process.
The Orenburg was forced to halt its intake of gas from Kazakstan, according to the Kazakhstan’s energy ministry report on Sunday.
Production at Karachaganak oil and gas has been reduced by 25 to 30 per cent (down to between 25,000 and 28,000 metric tons) as a result , industry sources told Reuters on Monday.
Ukraine claimed responsibility for the gas plant attack, which took place approximately 1,700km east of the Russian border and at an oil refinery in the Samara region.
Kyiv has increased its attacks on Russian energy facilities since August in attempt to impede fuel supplies and funding in Moscow.
Orenburg might resume some gas intake from Karachaganak on Monday, sources said, but they declined to comment on when the supply levels would be restored to the normal level of 35,000-35,500.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has labelled his meeting with Donald Trump last Sunday a “success” making progress on new air defence systems, despite reports that Trump insulted him at The White House.
The meeting ended with Trump calling for a ceasefire with forces in place.
Zelensky on Monday described Trump’s message as “positive”.
Three sources confirmed that Trump’s meeting with Zelensky was tense and involved repeated profanities.
“It was pretty bad,” one of the sources said of the meeting. “The message was, ‘Your country will freeze, and your country will be destroyed'” if Ukraine doesn’t make a deal with Russia.
Previously Trump has said Ukraine must give up territory to make peace, but seems to have recently shifted his opinion. Last month he characterised Russia as a “paper tiger” and said Ukraine could potentially win back all its land.
Donald Trump said the idea of a Putin-Trump rail tunnel linking the US and Russia was “interesting” after it was floated by a Russian envoy late on Thursday night.
But when asked about it in Washington on Friday, Zelensky said “I’m not happy with this idea,” prompting laughter from the US side.
The idea envisions a rail tunnel built under the Bering Strait, connecting the two countries, and allowing for joint exploration of natural resources.
Putin’s investment envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, suggested the idea after Trump’s call with Putin on Thursday.
“Imagine connecting the US and Russia, the Americas and the Afro-Eurasia with the Putin-Trump Tunnel – a 70-mile link symbolising unity,” he posted on X.
He suggested the project could be taken on by Elon Musk’s Boring Company, at a cost of $8bn (£6bn).
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