British News Agency

On Sunday, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said, “Cut it as it is.” He added, “It’s split right now,” and said, “You could leave it the way it is now.”

“They can negotiate something later,” he said. But for now, both sides should “stop at the battle line — go home, stop fighting, stop killing people.”

Trump’s remarks came after a tense meeting with the Ukrainian president at the White House on Friday and are viewed as a sudden reversal from his stance in September, when he said Ukraine could retake all its territory and even “advance further” into Russia.

Zelensky had flown to Washington hoping to capitalize on Trump’s growing frustration with Vladimir Putin after the U.S. president’s summit in Alaska failed to deliver progress in the war.

However, after weeks of lobbying, the Ukrainian leader left empty-handed, failing to secure long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, which would have been the longest-range weapons in Ukraine’s arsenal and allowed precise strikes deep into Russia, including Moscow.

After meeting Zelensky at the White House, Trump wrote on social media that the talks were “very interesting and candid,” adding, “as I have repeatedly told President Putin, it’s time to stop the carnage and make a DEAL.”

Sources described the meeting as tense, saying the Ukrainian delegation departed disappointed.

According to The Washington Post, Putin had proposed a land swap under which Russia would withdraw from small parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in exchange for Ukraine handing over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions to Russian control.