Behind the scenes of the Trump-Zelenski meeting at the White House: Trump, “swearing all the time”, asked Zelenski to accept Russia's conditions: “If he wants to, he will destroy you”

Friday's meeting at the White House between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskiy degenerated several times into a “full-blown fight”, in which the US president asked Ukraine to accept Russia's proposal to fully cede Donbas, warning that if he wants to, Vladimir Putin will “destroy you”, according to several European officials briefed on the talks, quoted by the Financial Times. Trump “sweared all the time” and at one point threw out maps of the front presented by the Ukrainian side, saying he was “tired of seeing them”.

Diplomatic sources added that the US president repeatedly repeated the talking points made by the Russian leader in their phone call on Thursday night.

The meeting between Trump and Zelenskiy took place in the context of a new initiative by the US president to end Russia's war, after the cease-fire reached between Israel and Hamas. Zelenski and his team went to the White House hoping to convince Trump to supply them with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, but the US president ultimately refused.

Trump and Zelenskiy had another heated confrontation at the White House in February, when Trump and Vice President JD Vance harshly criticized Zelenskiy for what they described as his “lack of gratitude” to the United States.

“If he wants to, he will destroy you”

During Friday's meeting, Trump appeared to take many of Putin's arguments almost verbatim, even as they contradicted his own recent statements about Russia's weaknesses, European officials told the Financial Times.

According to a European official with direct knowledge of the meeting, Trump told Zelensky that Putin had told him the conflict was “a special operation, not even a war,” adding that the Ukrainian leader must accept a deal or be destroyed.

The official reported that Trump told Zelenskiy he was losing the war and warned him: “If (Putin no) wants to, he will destroy you.”

At one point, the US president tossed aside maps presented by Ukraine of the battle front, the official familiar with the discussion said. According to it, Trump said he was “tired” of seeing the map of the front line in Ukraine over and over again.

“That red line, I don't even know where it is. I've never been there,” Trump allegedly said, according to the official.

Trump also said Russia's economy was “doing very well,” the same source reported, in stark contrast to his recent public statements urging Putin to negotiate because “his economy is going to collapse.”

The White House and the Ukrainian president's office have yet to respond to requests for comment from the Financial Times.

Trump said on Fox News on Sunday that he was confident he could get an end to the conflict and added that Putin “is going to take something, he's already won some territory.”

Putin's proposal: Donbas for pieces of Kherson and Zaporozhye

In a telephone conversation on Thursday, Putin made a new offer to Trump, whereby Ukraine would cede the parts of Donbas still under its control, in exchange for small areas of the two southern frontline regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia.

The Russian proposal represents a minor concession from the one made at the last meeting between Putin and Trump in Alaska in August, when the Kremlin leader said he would accept freezing the contact line on the rest of the front if Ukraine cedes Donbas.

And that meeting ended tensely, after Putin rejected Trump's push for an immediate truce and rambled on about Ukraine's medieval history, prompting Washington to consider stepping up support for Kiev, including by providing Tomahawk missiles.

But ceding the rest of the Donbas still under Ukrainian control is unacceptable to Kiev, as it would mean handing over to Moscow territory it has only partially occupied for more than a decade and has failed to capture despite efforts after Putin's 2022 invasion order.

Russian forces have had difficulty holding the Kherson and Zaporizhia territories that Putin is offering in exchange, and have made virtually no progress on that front since 2022, the year the war broke out.

Zelenskiy demands “decisive measures” from Western partners

Trump's aggressive repetition of Putin's rhetoric on Friday dashed the hopes of many of Ukraine's European allies that he could be persuaded to step up support for Kiev. That hope came after Trump in recent weeks expressed frustration with Putin's refusal to actively engage in bilateral peace talks with Zelenskiy.

Three other European officials briefed on the White House talks confirmed that Trump spent much of the meeting lecturing Zelenskiy, repeating Putin's arguments about the conflict and urging him to accept the Russian proposal.

“Zelenski came out visibly discouraged” from the meeting, one of the officials said, adding that European leaders “are not optimistic, but they are pragmatic in planning the next steps.”

In a statement on Sunday, Zelenskiy said that “decisive action is needed from the United States, Europe, the G20 and G7 countries” to end the war.