Former U.S. President Donald Trump has privately said he could end Russia’s war by pressuring Ukraine to cede Crimea and Donbas to Moscow, the Washington Post reported on April 7, citing sources.
Trump has repeatedly said he could end Russia’s war within 24 hours if elected president, without specifying the steps for reaching a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow.
The presumptive Republican nominee has also reportedly said he thinks both Moscow and Kyiv “want to save face, they want a way out,” claiming that Ukrainians in Russian-occupied territories would be okay with being part of Russia.
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Russia illegally annexed Crimea and invaded the Donbas in 2014.
In 2022, Russia also occupied parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts and claimed to annex the regions along with the Donbas.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly said Kyiv would not cede territories in exchange for peace.
“It looks as if Donald Trump had already these 24 hours once in his time. We were at war, not a full-scale war, but we were at war and as I assume he had that time at his disposal, but he must have had some other priorities,” Zelensky told ABC News on June 9.
Zelensky introduced Ukraine’s 10-point peace plan at a G20 summit in November 2022. The peace plan includes the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops, establishing a tribunal for Russian war crimes, the release of all prisoners of war and deported Ukrainians, and the prevention of ecocide.
Trump is set to become the Republican nominee in the U.S. presidential election after former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley exited the presidential race on March 6.
He said in May that he would not commit to providing Ukraine with defense assistance if he won the 2024 election.
In mid-March, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin dismissed the idea of starting negotiations with Ukraine just because its ammunition stocks are dwindling, calling the notion “ridiculous.”
Kyiv faces increasingly critical ammunition shortages as $60 billion in support from the U.S., a key military donor, remains stalled by disputes in Congress.
A document from unsuccessful peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv in 2022, seen by the Wall Street Journal, indicates that Russian peace terms include severe restrictions on Ukraine's Armed Forces and a ban on joining military blocs like NATO. This would make the country permanently vulnerable to Russian aggression.
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