Vladimir Putin speaks on the phone at the Kremlin on 22 May 2025. Photo: EPA/ALEXANDER KAZAKOV / SPUTNIK / KREMLIN POOL
Vladimir Putin has demanded that Kyiv surrender full control of its eastern Donetsk region to Russia as a prerequisite for ending the war in Ukraine, The Washington Post (WP) reported on Saturday.
In a call with US President Donald Trump on Thursday, Putin reportedly made control of the Donetsk region a condition of negotiating a peace deal. Unlike the neighbouring Luhansk region, which has been almost entirely seized by Russia, Moscow controls only around 70% of the Donetsk region, where active hostilities are ongoing.
According to WP, Putin suggested he would be willing to surrender parts of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in southeastern Ukraine, which have been partially occupied by Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, in exchange for the entirety of Donetsk.
This stance marks a turn from Putin’s previous sweeping demands made during the Alaska summit with Trump in August, where he reportedly made it clear that Ukraine must cede all of its regions partially occupied by Russia, including the Luhansk and Donetsk regions and the occupied territory in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
According to WP, some White House officials saw the new demands as “progress”, which may have caused Trump to pivot during his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday and refuse to provide Kyiv with Tomahawk cruise missiles, urging both countries to “stop where they are” in a Truth Social post issued after the meeting.
A senior European diplomat said Kyiv is unlikely to see Trump’s change of heart as a positive sign, telling WP: “It’s like selling them their own leg in exchange for nothing”.
Nevertheless, some Ukrainian officials have privately told WP they “accept that Russia is likely to retain de facto control of the territory it has captured”, but that they are seeking “robust security assurances” from Washington and Europe to deter Russia from restarting the war.
