U.S. President Donald Trump's recent statements indicate a shift toward pressuring Ukraine to make territorial concessions to Russia, signaling a potential U.S.-backed deal on terms largely favorable to Moscow and heightening uncertainty about future American support for Kyiv. Trump stated on Oct. 19 that the war in Ukraine should be frozen along the current front lines. This statement followed media reports about a tense Oct. 17 White House meeting at which Trump is said to have urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to cede Ukrainian-controlled territories in the Donbas region to end the conflict. Just hours earlier, Trump had spoken with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, by phone and announced a bilateral summit in Budapest, Hungary, "within the next two weeks." Trump also indicated that high-ranking delegations, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, would meet in the coming days (though no specific date or...
