FT: Europeans compare Donetsk region to Florida, Trump is impressed

During the talks in Washington, European leaders compared Ukraine's Donetsk region to the US state of Florida, and US President Donald Trump was impressed by the analogy. This was reported by the newspaper Financial Times with reference to unnamed interlocutors familiar with the matter.

One of the stumbling blocks in the peace talks is Russia's demand that Ukraine cede territory in Donetsk and Luhansk regions in exchange for freezing the front line in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. However, Kyiv insists that it will not give up any territory.

Two FT sources said that on Monday, August 18, at the White House, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Europeans compared the transfer of the remaining part of Donetsk region under the control of the Defense Forces to Trump's transfer of eastern Florida.

They added that the US president was impressed by this analogy.

• On August 12, Zelenskyy said that the Defense Forces would not withdraw from Donbas.
• On August 18, Trump met with Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House. Read about this and other events in LIGA.net's chronicle of the talks.