President Trump reiterated his name on Sunday for a right away halt to the three-and-a-half-year full-scale battle in Ukraine, saying the battle traces ought to be frozen the place they at the moment stand, with Russia’s invading forces occupying most of Ukraine’s jap Donbas area.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected the concept of forfeiting the Donbas, or some other occupied floor, to Moscow within the years since Vladimir Putin ordered Russia full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
“Let it be cut the way it is. It’s cut up right now. I think 78% of the land is already taken by Russia. You leave it the way it is right now,” Mr. Trump informed reporters Sunday on Air Pressure One, apparently referring particularly to the Donbas area. “They can negotiate something later on down the line. But I said cut and stop at the battle line. Go home. Stop fighting, stop killing people.”
The Donbas is a culturally and economically important area, the place many individuals converse Russian and have sympathies with Moscow. It’s dwelling to a lot of Ukraine’s heavy trade and mining, accounting for about 16% of the nation’s GDP earlier than the battle began, based on The Related Press.
His remarks got here two days after Mr. Trump met in particular person with Zelenskyy on the White Home, which was a day after he spoke on the telephone for 2 hours with Putin.
President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shake palms exterior the West Wing of the White Home, Oct. 17, 2025.
Aaron Schwartz/Sipa/Bloomberg/Getty/Sipa USA
Zelenskyy appeared to reiterate Kyiv’s unwillingness to cede any territory for a ceasefire on Sunday, in the meantime, saying he had urged European leaders to use “the right kind of pressure” on Russia.
“Almost every day now, we are communicating with leaders to ensure that we have a common position, all of us in Europe, on putting pressure on Russia — the right kind of pressure. We will grant the aggressor no gifts and forget nothing,” Zelenskyy mentioned in a social media put up.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk mentioned Sunday that Ukraine shouldn’t be put beneath stress to make concessions on its territory.
“None of us should put pressure on Zelenskyy when it comes to territorial concessions,” he mentioned in a social media put up. “We should all put pressure on Russia to stop its aggression. Appeasement never was a road to a just and lasting peace.”
In one other social media put up, Zelenskyy referred to as his Friday Oval Workplace assembly with Mr. Trump a “pointed conversation.”
A map posted on-line by the U.Ok. Defence Intelligence company on Oct. 17, 2025 exhibits the British authorities’s evaluation of the entrance line in jap Ukraine, with the world occupied by Russia’s invading forces proven pink.
U.Ok. Protection Intelligence company
Mr. Trump mentioned in a put up on his personal Fact Social media platform that his assembly with the Ukrainian chief was “very interesting, and cordial.”
“I told him, as I likewise strongly suggested to President Putin, that it is time to stop the killing, and make a DEAL! Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts. They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide,” Mr. Trump mentioned.
Will probably be their second bilateral assembly this yr, following in-person talks in Alaska in August. That diplomatic effort by Mr. Trump yielded no tangible outcomes, as Moscow has continued to press its navy marketing campaign, taking extra territory on the bottom and bombarding Ukrainian cities from the air. Putin has additionally thus far declined Mr. Trump’s urging to carry a three-way assembly with Zelenskyy.
Ukraine has ramped up its assaults on key Russian power infrastructure in current months. The Common Employees of the Armed Companies, Ukraine’s navy headquarters, mentioned Sunday in a social media put up that it had struck the Orenburg Fuel plant in southern Russia, one of many nation’s largest pure fuel processing vegetation.
“The Defense Forces of Ukraine are consistently implementing a set of measures to damage critical enterprises involved in ensuring the needs of the Russian Armed Forces,” the overall workers workers.
A drone view exhibits a Russian oil depot burning after being hit by a Ukrainian strike, based on the Ukrainian basic workers, in Hvardiiske, Crimea, in a screengrab taken from a video launched by Ukraine’s authorities on Oct. 17, 2025.
SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES OF UKRAINE/Handout/REUTERS
The Trump administration has applied a coverage of promoting weapons to Ukraine through America’s European NATO allies, who foot the invoice for the {hardware}, since August. That association was labored out between Mr. Trump and different NATO leaders earlier in the summertime.
Regardless of optimistic indicators from the White Home in current months concerning a possible deal to provide Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, Mr. Trump demurred on the topic when requested about it by reporters Friday throughout his assembly with Zelenskyy.
“One thing I have to say, we want Tomahawks, also. We don’t want to be giving away things that we need to protect our country,” Mr. Trump mentioned.
Vice President JD Vance informed reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Sunday that Mr. Trump had not but made a remaining choice on whether or not to grant Ukraine entry to the missiles.
“If he thinks it is in America’s best interest to sell additional weapons to Europe, he will do that, but right now he has not made that decision with regards to Tomahawks,” Vance mentioned.
