Trump urged partners in Europe to recognize Donbass as Russian in exchange for peace — NYT

US President Donald Trump, in a conversation with European leaders after a meeting with Vladimir Putin, offered to recognize for Russia has territories in the Donbas in exchange for concluding a peace agreement.

This was reported on Saturday, August 16 by The New York Times (NYT), citing two unnamed high-ranking European officials familiar with the content of the conversation.

They explained that we are talking, among other things, about those territories of the DPR and the LPR that are currently under the control of Ukrainian troops.

"Trump refused to demand an immediate cease-fire. He believes that it is possible to conclude a peace treaty quickly if Zelensky agrees to cede the rest of Donbass to Russia," the interlocutors said.

Allegedly, the US president intends to discuss this peace plan during the upcoming meeting with Zelensky at the White House, to which European leaders were also invited.

However, according to the publication, during a telephone conversation after the summit in Alaska, they categorically rejected Trump's initiative to cede territories "on which there are important defensive lines and rich mineral deposits."

Earlier, EADaily reported that the head of the Kiev regime, Vladimir Zelensky, on Monday, August 18, will go to Washington, to find out why US President Donald Trump abandoned the idea of a ceasefire agreed earlier with Ukraine and Europe before the start of peace talks with Russia.