Trump States He Has Agreed with Putin on 'Territory Swap'
US President Donald Trump announced that he had reached an agreement in principle with Russian President Vladimir Putin on an ‘exchange of territories’ between Ukraine and Russia.
The Gaze reports on it, referring to Trump's interview with Fox News after talks with Putin in Anchorage.
The American leader stressed that the main issue now is for Ukraine to accept the agreements he reached with Putin. ‘Ukraine has to agree, and President Zelenskyy has to agree,’ he said, without specifying the details of the agreements.
‘Now it’s up to President Zelenskyy to make it happen, and to a certain extent, the European nations... There’s a good chance it will happen,’ the president added.
‘Now it is primarily up to President Zelenskyy to make this happen, and to a certain extent to the European nations... There is a good chance that this will happen,’ the president added.
The TV presenter asked whether it was now possible to say that ‘there will be more Russian territory than there was, and Ukraine will receive security measures that are not related to NATO?’ Donald Trump replied in the affirmative.
‘These are the issues we negotiated and essentially agreed on, very much agreed on... We are very close to an agreement, and Ukraine has to agree to it. Although it is possible that they will say “no”,’ he said.
Trump assessed the possibility of concluding an agreement as ‘50-50’ and separately announced what message he would send to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during their conversation: ‘Agree to the deal. You have to conclude the agreement. Russia is a great power.’
The interview did not provide any details about the scope and outlines of this ‘exchange of territories.’
Earlier, Zelenskyy emphasised that the issue of territories is defined in the Ukrainian constitution.
In addition, Trump said that he would not impose energy sanctions against Russia, which he had recently considered.
He was asked what he thought about the prospects of new energy sanctions against Russia after what happened at the meeting with Putin.
"Because of what happened today, I don't think I should think about it. More precisely, I may have to think about it in two or three weeks, but right now we don't have to think about it. The meeting went very well,‘ the US president replied.
The correspondent of The Economist also learned from sources that at the meeting, the leaders of Russia and the US allegedly reached a preliminary agreement on a temporary ’ceasefire in the air".
‘We believe that the “sky” will show signs of the preliminary results of these negotiations. Next week will be interesting,’ he quoted his anonymous interlocutors as saying.
After the meeting, the US president called Zelenskyy and European leaders and shared details of his talks with the Kremlin leader in Alaska. This was reported by the German publication dpa, citing government sources.
As The Gaze reported earlier, Zelenskyy's Office believes Russia uses talks for propaganda, not peace.
Read more: What Did Putin and Trump Agree On?