Putin Asked Trump to Secure Ukraine’s Surrender of Strategic Land, Report Reveals

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – In a high-stakes diplomatic maneuver that threatens to upend delicate peace overtures, Russian President Vladimir Putin has directly demanded that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government surrender full control of the entire Donetsk region as a core condition for ending the war, a revelation made during a phone call this past week with United States President Donald Trump.

According to a detailed report by The Washington Post, citing two senior officials familiar with the sensitive conversation, Putin’s insistence on annexing the strategically vital eastern Ukrainian territory—a region Moscow has failed to conquer in 11 years of brutal conflict—signals that the Kremlin is not backing away from its maximalist demands, potentially creating a formidable obstacle to President Trump’s optimistic push for a swift peace deal.

The demand from the Russian leader, which has not been previously reported, casts a long shadow over the recent flurry of diplomatic activity, including a critical White House meeting on Friday between Trump and Zelensky.

Putin’s focus on Donetsk, where Ukrainian forces are deeply entrenched in what they consider a major bulwark against a Russian advance toward Kyiv, suggests that despite the battlefield stalemate, his strategic ambitions remain undiminished. 

While Russia and its separatist proxies have claimed parts of the Donetsk region since 2014, they have never managed to seize the entirety of the territory by force. The Kremlin's renewed insistence on this point is a clear indication of the immense challenges that lie ahead for the planned peace summit between Trump and Putin, which is set to take place in Hungary in the coming weeks.

President Trump, for his part, has not publicly commented on or endorsed Putin’s specific demand for Donetsk.

Following his meeting with the Ukrainian delegation, Trump took to social media with a call for an immediate cessation of hostilities based on the current lines of control. "It is time to stop the killing, and make a DEAL! Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts. They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide!” Trump wrote. 

This public posture reflects his administration's broader goal of extricating the United States from prolonged conflicts and securing a rapid agreement, a strategy he has pursued with renewed vigor since brokering a ceasefire and hostage exchange deal in Gaza.

The specifics of the offer Putin made during the phone call, as detailed by the senior officials cited in The Washington Post, provide a window into the Kremlin's negotiating strategy.

The Russian president reportedly suggested that he would be willing to surrender parts of two other partially conquered Ukrainian regions, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, in exchange for securing complete control over Donetsk.

This proposal was apparently viewed by some within the White House as a sign of progress, a slight softening of Russia’s position compared to the more sweeping territorial claims Putin made during a summit with Trump in Anchorage in August.

"It’s like selling them their own leg in exchange for nothing."

However, this interpretation is not shared by key European allies, who view the offer with deep skepticism. A senior European diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity, dismissed the proposal in stark terms. "It’s like selling them their own leg in exchange for nothing," the diplomat told The Washington Post, highlighting the view that Putin is merely offering to return Ukrainian sovereign territory that he has failed to fully control in exchange for a major strategic prize that his military has been unable to win on the battlefield.

The complexities and potential pitfalls of the negotiations were further underscored during the Friday meeting in the West Wing. The report reveals that President Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, directly pressed the Ukrainian delegation about the possibility of handing over Donetsk.

In doing so, Witkoff reportedly noted that the region is mostly Russian-speaking, a frequent Kremlin talking point that Ukrainian and European officials have long viewed as a disingenuous justification for Russian aggression and a sign of sympathy toward Moscow's demands.

This line of reasoning ignores the nuanced reality within Ukraine, where Russian was the first language for many citizens—including President Zelensky himself—and its use has not historically been an indicator of pro-Moscow sentiment. In fact, there has been a significant societal shift toward using the Ukrainian language in the years since Russia's initial 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.

For Ukraine, the primary focus of any negotiation is not territorial concessions but the establishment of long-term security. While Kyiv has publicly endorsed Trump’s call for a ceasefire along the current front lines—a tacit acknowledgment that Russia is likely to retain de facto control over the approximately 20 percent of Ukrainian territory it currently occupies—officials have privately emphasized that their main objective is to secure robust and ironclad security assurances from Washington and European partners.

These guarantees are seen as essential to deter Russia from restarting the war in the future.

The Ukrainian delegation had also hoped to leave the White House meeting with a commitment for long-range Tomahawk missiles to bolster their defenses, particularly as they face another harsh winter with Russia expected to renew its campaign of targeting the country's energy infrastructure. They ultimately departed empty-handed.

President Trump had reportedly considered sending the powerful Tomahawk weapons to Ukraine ahead of the meeting, a move that would have significantly enhanced Kyiv's military capabilities. However, he appeared to back away from this option following his phone call with Putin on Thursday.

Speaking alongside President Zelensky on Friday, Trump stated that he hoped to end the war without needing to send the advanced missile systems. This shift in stance suggests a desire to maintain a delicate balance in his parallel discussions with both Moscow and Kyiv, avoiding any move that could be seen as escalating the conflict while peace negotiations are in a critical phase.

The front lines in the conflict have been largely stagnant over the past year, with neither side achieving a significant breakthrough. This bloody stalemate has created a potential opening for diplomacy, but the fundamental gap between Russia's territorial demands and Ukraine's security needs remains vast.

As he prepares for his face-to-face meeting with Putin, President Trump has projected an air of confidence in his own negotiating prowess. 

When asked on Friday whether he was concerned that Putin might be trying to play him to buy more time, Trump was dismissive. "I’ve been played all my life by the best of them, and I came out really well," he said, adding that it was "all right" if the process took some time. "But I think that I’m pretty good at this stuff."

The success or failure of his high-stakes diplomatic gambit will depend on whether he can bridge the chasm between Putin's unyielding demand for Donetsk and Ukraine's non-negotiable requirement for a secure and sovereign future.