'If Putin wants it, he will destroy you': Trump asked Zelensky to accept Russia's terms to end the war

The Financial Times (FT) revealed on Sunday that President Donald Trump urged his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, to accept the Russian regime's terms to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, during a meeting that both leaders had this Friday at the White House, and in which, as detailed by the FT, the conservative leader warned Zelensky that Putin had assured him that he would "destroy" his entire country if he did not accept.

According to what was published by the FT, different officials who were present at the meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity detailed that Trump seemed to adopt Kremlin's narrative during his meeting with Zelensky, going so far as to contradict several of his recent statements about the weaknesses that Russia has been suffering during the war, which has been going on for just over three years without having been able to materialize, not only a conquest of Ukraine, but also a change of regime.

The media explained that a European official present at the meeting assured that Trump told the Ukrainian leader that Putin had assured him that the conflict was a "special operation, not even a war," and added that Zelensky must reach an agreement or face destruction. The official said that Trump warned Zelensky that he was losing the war: "If [Putin] wants it, he will destroy you."

Trump asked Zelensky to hand over Donbas

At one point during the meeting, the U.S. president reportedly even tossed aside maps of the Ukrainian battlefield, then told Zelensky that he was "sick" of seeing the map of the Ukrainian frontline over and over again. "This red line, I don't even know where this is. I've never been there," Trump said, according to the European official told the FT.

The same official assured the outlet that Trump also commented that the Russian economy was in very good shape, representing a sharp contradiction to his recent public statements, in which he had urged Putin to negotiate because his "economy is going to collapse."

Other people familiar with the meeting between Trump and Zelensky also detailed to the media outlet that the meeting drifted on numerous occasions into a "shouting match," with the conservative leader "cursing all the time." Those sources added that Trump insisted that Zelensky hand over the entire Donbas region to Putin and constantly repeated the same arguments the Russian dictator had made in his call a day earlier.