Explosive developments are under way at the Ukrainian front, with the American President Donald Trump essentially recognising the Russian victory on the battlefields and sending a resounding message to Kyiv, underscoring to the Ukrainians that it will be impossible to prevail against the Russian military machine.
At the same time, the United States took a decisive step toward aligning with Russia’s position on the Ukrainian issue, since during the meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, the American President and the Special Envoy Steve Witkoff demanded of the Ukrainian unconstitutional President the recognition of Russian sovereignty over the Donbass.
Indeed, Zelensky himself revealed the relevant American request to the Ukrainian government in an interview with the Ukrainian outlet «Telegraf».
Of course, this is not enough for Moscow, which, for its part, demands the surrender of the Ukrainians in all territories where… the Russian boot has trodden and prevailed.
For this reason, the Kremlin is watching developments with cautious optimism and strategic calm, and signals that if its goals in Ukraine — which, it should be noted, are not limited to the territorial — are not fulfilled, it will continue the special military operation until the end.
Meanwhile, the Russians have justified reservations about the stance of the American government and fear yet another… inexplicable 180-degree turn of Trump on the Ukrainian issue, something which they saw happening after the summit in Alaska…
By extension Russia is sending in all directions a clear message: end of the war on the terms of the victor, or… hell (at least) until 2026!
Bombshell from Donald Trump: The Ukrainians will be defeated by the Russian army
The American President, Donald Trump, declared that he does not believe Ukraine will win the conflict against the Russian military machine.
“Theoretically, they could still win. I don’t think though that they will win. But theoretically, they still could,” declared the American leader, speaking to journalists at the start of his meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House.
Trump was responding to a request for comment regarding his recent statements about Ukraine’s potential return to its old borders.
Shocking admission from Volodymyr Zelensky: Donald Trump demanded our surrender in the Donbass
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, admitted that during the recent negotiations in Washington, members of the Trump government requested Ukraine’s withdrawal from the Donbass, in his interview with the Ukrainian newspaper Telegraf.
According to Zelensky, during the meeting Special Envoy Steve Witkoff spoke of those territories as part of Russia, referring to the relevant provision of its constitution.
“Mr Witkoff says that this is included in the Constitution of the Russian Federation,” he declared, emphasising that he does not agree with this demand.
Zelensky also noted that the White House was concerned about the possibility that Ukraine would use the cessation of hostilities to prepare for a military offensive.
Isolated Volodymyr Zelensky – Donald Trump: Resolution of the conflict on the terms… of the victor
Earlier, the newspaper Financial Times reported that Donald Trump, during the meeting with Zelensky at the White House, demanded that he accept Russia’s terms for ending the conflict.
According to the newspaper, the discussion was intense and ended in confrontation: Trump, the FT writes, insisted on the transfer of all of the Donbass to Moscow.
Sources for the FT also noted that during the conversation the American leader categorically refused to approve the sale of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
Earlier, Zelensky announced that peace is approaching in Ukraine.
Steve Witkoff: Peace Is… contagious and approaching Ukraine
On his part, the Special Envoy of the American President, Steve Witkoff, expressed the view that the momentum toward concluding peace agreements has become “contagious”.
“Peace agreements are becoming contagious. People want to close them,” said the special envoy in his interview with CBS News.
Witkoff stated that his diplomatic efforts require “building trust among people” who for “decades of suspicion and misunderstanding.”
The special envoy emphasised that he is currently involved in the process of resolving the conflict in Ukraine, the restoration of Iranian–American relations, and also hopes for a peace agreement between Algeria and Morocco within two months.
Earlier, the news outlet Axios reported, citing sources, that Witkoff and the American President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will travel to Israel this week to begin working on stabilising the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and preparing next steps for implementing the next phase of the peace agreement.
Emergency phone call by Sergey Lavrov and Marco Rubio with an eye on… Budapest
The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, and the American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, discussed possible concrete steps to implement the agreements reached during the telephone conversation of the Presidents of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the United States, Donald Trump, on 16 October, as announced by the Russian Foreign Ministry after the phone call between the two counterparts.
The Russian diplomatic mission revealed that the Russian Foreign Minister contacted the American Secretary of State on 20 October.
During the conversation, both sides discussed next steps for implementing the agreements achieved in the meeting of Putin and Trump on 16 October.
Bombshell revelation from Politico: Zelensky’s Meeting with Trump a mega-fiasco – The Tomahawk mistake of the Ukrainians
The visit of the Ukrainian delegation to the United States turned into a complete failure.
The Ukrainian side failed to achieve any positive results, as revealed to Politico by correspondent Jamie Dettmer.
According to him, this happened because Kyiv ignored the advice of its lobbyists from the Republican Party of the U.S. to postpone the visit or adjust its agenda.
“The meeting of the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, with the American President, Donald Trump, could have produced at least some results, if the latter had adjusted his position after the phone call with Vladimir Putin,” states Dettmer.
According to him, the Republicans had advised not to focus on the Tomahawk deliveries, because after the conversation with Putin and ahead of the meeting with the Russian President, Trump apparently would not grant permission for those missiles to Ukraine.
“However, Kyiv ignored the advice of its Republican friends in Washington, many of whom are sceptical whether Trump would agree to provide Tomahawks to Ukraine under any circumstances, fearing escalation of the conflict and further involvement of the United States in the war. The concern of the Pentagon about its own American stocks, which Trump himself mentioned on Friday 19/10, is not even taken into consideration,” writes the edition.
They focused on Tomahawks and… the Ukrainians lost the forest for the trees!
As a result, the Ukrainian delegation, not abandoning the demand for Tomahawks, lost the opportunity to focus on other significant issues – especially air-to-air missiles for F-16 and MiG fighters, as well as surface-to-air missiles for Patriot air-defence systems.
The focus on Tomahawks also diverted attention from other critical requests, such as securing Trump’s approval for the use of frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s defence.
There was also limited progress in discussions concerning LNG imports into the United States.
“In fact, the massive delegation of Ukrainian ministers and officials, including the top adviser of Zelensky, Andriy Yermak, and the Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, which was sent to Washington ahead of the White House meeting on Friday, suffered a complete failure, failing to secure several significant agreements both with the U.S. government and the private sector.
The idea was to prepare major deals, including agreements with large American defence companies and energy actors, which were to be signed during the White House meeting,” stated a Republican insider.
“But in the end, nothing was achieved,” writes Politico.
“Unfortunately, there were no specific agreements all week,” agreed another foreign-policy adviser of the Republicans.
He also noted that the inappropriate focus on Tomahawks was only part of the problem – another part was the timing of Zelensky’s visit and the overall effort of cheap… lobbying by Ukraine in Washington.
“We strongly asked them to postpone the visit,” he said.
It was important that Svyrydenko and the economic officials were in Washington because of the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, but other lobbying efforts should have been postponed for about a week.
Confirmation by the Washington Post: “Withdraw your army immediately from the Donbass”
It is noted that on Sunday 19/10 an article in the Washington Post reported that the special envoy of Trump, Stephen Witkoff, urged Zelensky to withdraw the troops from the Donbass.
The next day, on Sunday, British media became involved in the discussion, adding new dimensions.
The Financial Times, citing European officials “with knowledge of the course of the negotiations,” noted that Donald Trump was extremely strict toward Zelensky, accused him, dictated advice, rejected the maps presented by the Ukrainian delegation and demanded from Zelensky the withdrawal of troops from the Donbass, while repeatedly “restating Putin’s positions.”
Later the same was reported by the British agency Reuters.
What happened behind the closed doors of the White House
Indeed, if we summarise all the reports of the last hours about the Trump-Zelensky meeting, we can discern several common threads.
Trump denied Zelensky the request for the Tomahawk missiles, without giving specific promises on the remaining issues.
Witkoff raised the issue of withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donbass, receiving a negative response from Kyiv.
Overall, the meeting did not take place in a positive climate and both sides left with negative impressions.
Isolated and fateful, Volodymyr Zelensky
Zelensky was disappointed that he did not receive what he expected and concluded that Trump does not intend to intensify pressure on Russia.
From his side, the White House saw in Zelensky’s behavior the desire for escalation of the war.
Additionally, as Zelensky stated today, Trump’s associates expressed concern that Ukraine may use a pause in hostilities to prepare for a new offensive (as continually asserted by Vladimir Putin).
Probably for this reason, Reuters reported that Trump’s remark during the meeting that security guarantees should be discussed not only for Ukraine, but also for Russia.
The call to the Europeans
Regarding the FT publication, as noted, its sources were European officials.
They were not present at the meeting and, therefore, could only learn what happened from Zelensky, who called them immediately after his conversation with Trump.
In other words, this is an interpretation of the meeting from the Ukrainian and European side.
And as we see, that interpretation is clearly negative toward Trump.
The diplomatic triumph of Vladimir Putin
This is not the only publication of this kind.
Several other articles have already appeared with the joint position that Putin has won and convinced Trump to turn in his favour.
But what is the point of these publications, given the support that Trump gave Zelensky’s position and his appeal to all sides to stop the gunfire focusing on the frontline?
Trump’s distance from a hard line against Russia
It appears that Zelensky and his European partners are extremely disappointed by the fact that Trump avoided adopting strict actions against Russia (such as Tomahawk missions, stricter sanctions etc.) and intends to continue the policy of gradual disengagement from the war, limiting aid to Kyiv and converting arms deliveries into purely commercial basis, while at the same time avoiding escalation in U.S.–Russia relations.
Even this choice is negative for the Ukrainian authorities, given the major doubts about Europe’s ability to fund alone all Ukraine’s military needs.
What Kyiv fears
In addition, Kyiv probably fears that, based on Trump’s current stance, he may indeed begin to pressure Zelensky to force him to make concessions.
At least indirectly, by blocking arms shipments, even for payment, restricting intelligence sharing, etc.
Or, the head of the White House may make very large concessions to Moscow to persuade Putin to agree to a ceasefire on the frontline: to lift sanctions, to officially recognise all occupied Ukrainian territory as Russian, etc.
The target… Trump’s ego
To prevent such an outcome and to push Trump toward a tougher stance against Russia, the avalanche of publications about the American President’s retreat before Putin has started, with the aim of playing on the ego of the American politician and prompting him to prove the opposite by taking strict actions against the Kremlin.
However, the result of this campaign may well be the opposite, causing great irritation to Trump, which in turn may lead to the negative consequences described for Kyiv.
What Volodymyr Zelensky claimed
Ukraine is close to the end of military operations, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed in his remarks today, pointing out that the country has reached a point where the end of hostilities is “possible”, but once again emphasised that this does not guarantee the war will end immediately.
This statement comes at a time when international talks for conflict resolution are ongoing and Ukraine is trying to increase pressure on Russia for a political solution.
“We have approached a possible end of the war. I tell you with certainty,” said Zelensky, however adding that “this does not mean it will definitely end.”
“The President of the United States achieved much in the Middle East, and on that momentum he wants to end the conflict between Russia and **Ukraine,” emphasised Zelensky, who referred to the possibility of a meeting of the Presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, in Budapest, and expressed his willingness to participate in such a meeting.
However, he set conditions, noting that he is ready to participate either in a trilateral meeting or in indirect negotiations mediated by Trump.
We are not withdrawing from the Donbass
Moreover, Zelensky admitted that during a meeting in Washington, the representatives of the U.S. President’s team asked Kyiv to withdraw from the Donbass.
Zelensky specifically stated that the special envoy of the American President, Steven Witkoff, argued that those areas belong to Russia according to its Constitution.
“Witkoff said this is written in the Constitution,” said Zelensky in a meeting with journalists, indicating that he did not agree with the demand for “withdrawal from the Donbass”.
He also stated that the representatives of the Trump team expressed concern that Ukraine may use the pause in hostilities to prepare for a counter-offensive.
“They keep repeating the story that supposedly we will be preparing for a counter-attack, that we cannot have a cease-fire,” said Zelensky.
We want another 25 Patriots
The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that his country is in “need” of an additional 25 American Patriot air-defence systems to help it face Russian strikes.
In his remarks, Zelensky said that he “held talks with defence-industry firms” to “prepare a contract for 25 Patriot systems”.
“They are 25 systems that we need,” emphasised the Ukrainian President, who also referenced the choice of Budapest as the location for the next Summit between the Presidents of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the United States, Donald Trump.
For a Summit in Budapest
“I do not consider that Budapest is the best location for this meeting (…) Because we are talking about peace in Ukraine, not elections in Hungary,” argued Zelensky.
As he said, there are many “other various worthy options,” such as Switzerland, Austria, the Vatican, Saudi Arabia, Qatar or Turkey.
Further, Zelensky noted that the Prime Minister of Hungary cannot do anything “positive for Ukrainians” while he stressed that European leaders want to address Trump with the request for the use of Tomahawk missiles.
We are fighting the Russian army
Zelensky maintained that a “quick end” to the conflict is not possible due to the significant superiority of the Russian armed forces.
As he said, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been resisting for more than three years against a “significantly more powerful enemy.”
“We are fighting the Russian army. That is why this conflict cannot end so quickly,” declared Zelensky.
Trump to Zelensky: You’ll… End
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, hinted to the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky during their meeting on 17 October at the White House that Ukraine “will freeze and be destroyed” if it fails to reach an agreement with Russia. The remark, which is reported to have been made by Trump in frustration, highlighted the growing tension between Washington and Kyiv over the pace of negotiations with Moscow.
One other anonymous official disputed the claim that Trump predicted Ukraine’s destruction, but confirmed that the American President used sharp language throughout the meeting.
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