The Trump White House wants Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to begin planning elections or else consider stepping down as a condition for the resumption of US military aid and intelligence sharing, a fresh NBC report reveals. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also said Monday that Ukraine must cede territory.
Ukraine “would have to make concessions over land that Russia had taken since 2014 as part of any agreement to end the war,” The NY Times reports. “The most important thing that we have to leave here with is a strong sense that Ukraine is prepared to do difficult things, like the Russians are going to have to do difficult things, to end this conflict or at least pause it in some way, shape or form,” Rubio told reporters as he flew from the US to Jeddah – as quoted in multiple outlets.
American and Ukrainian officials are meeting in Saudi Arabia. The question of elections in Ukraine, which have been canceled indefinitely under martial law, has moved to the forefront also as pressure is still on for Kiev to sign the minerals deal.
“As President Trump demonstrated by reading President Zelenskyy’s message at the joint session, the Ukrainians have made positive movement. With meetings in Saudi this coming week, we look forward to hearing more positive movement that will hopefully ultimately end this brutal war and bloodshed,” White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said this weekend when asked about Trump’s requirements.
Rubio in Riyadh has further explained, “The important point in this meeting is to establish clearly their intentions, their desire, as they’ve said publicly now numerous times, to reach a point where peace is possible,” Rubio said of Tuesday’s delegation meeting with the Ukrainians. “And then we’ll have to determine how far they are from the Russian position, which we don’t know yet either. And then once you understand where both sides truly are, it gives you a sense of how big the divide is and how hard it’s going to be.”
There’s widespread acknowledgement in Washington that Ukrainian forces will never be able to pry the four annexed territories in the east back from Russia.
The question of Crimea will be something Moscow will also never budge on – and Kiev is likely more willing at this point to give up any future claims on it, which has been the historic home of Russian naval power on the Black Sea.
As for elections, Zelensky’s term in office expired in May 2024, and Ukrainian parliament has recently reaffirmed the Constitutionality of Zelensky’s mandate as leader of the country during wartime. However, Trump last month called him a ‘dictator’ who canceled elections, and even long before that called him the “world’s greatest salesman” as he received hundreds of billions from the US and Western allies.
Below are the key lines from the Sunday NBC report:
Trump wants the deal, which would give the United States a stake in Ukraine’s mineral resources, signed. But he also wants to see a change in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s attitude toward peace talks, the officials said, including a willingness to make concessions such as giving up territory to Russia. Trump also wants Zelenskyy to make some movement toward elections in Ukraine and possibly toward stepping down as his country’s leader, the officials said.
As for some reports which suggest the next round of US-Russia talks are about to get underway, the Kremlin is denying that anything has been set:
Russian and U.S. officials do not plan to meet in Saudi Arabia this week for a new round of diplomatic talks, the Kremlin said Monday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied a CNN report claiming that Trump administration officials planned to meet separately with Russian and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia this week. The report, citing an unnamed source, did not specify who would have attended the discussions.
Increased speculation came after President Trump said Sunday that “big meetings” in Saudi Arabia would include Russia – after one “successful” meeting led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio already took place.
On the battlefield, Russia and Ukraine continue trading drone attacks on key energy infrastructure. But in the ‘war of attrition’ the Ukrainian side is losing, by almost all accounts.
Loading…
