US discussing Donbas 'delicately' and asking Ukraine to halt strikes on oil refineries - Source
Photo: Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner (Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump’s team is continuing peace talks aimed at ending Russia’s war, while maintaining a cautious stance on Donbas. Calls to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries are also still being heard, according to an informed source.
An insider revealed whether the Americans are currently demanding that Ukraine hand over Donbas to Russia.
According to the source, Trump's team is discussing Donbas "very delicately." Washington has made no demands.
"They say there are mediators: supposedly, they went and listened, one side is making demands, the media are reporting various things, none of our substitute proposals are acceptable, so they tell us to decide, while they claim to be helping both sides. That’s their approach. (You cannot accuse them of directly pressuring us on this issue, at least not over the past six months. They are not putting pressure on us)," the source said.
The insider also spoke about US demands for Ukraine to stop strikes on Russian oil refineries:
"We have been receiving persistent requests on this issue. They frame them this way: we are helping you, and we are not asking what you will give us in return for the security we are prepared to provide, or what you will give us in return for intelligence, and so on. We are not operating on the principle of transactions, but are building relations between two countries," the source noted.
According to the source, a sensitive issue within these relations is the rise in diesel prices.
"And Trump asked your president to stop doing this for a while. Without any blackmail, conditions, and so on. And you, supposedly, don't want to. This is, of course, completely false, as the volumes of diesel involved are not that large, but it sounds good. We respond that we cannot tell our military not to strike at a time when the Russians are attacking our energy infrastructure. It would sound like betrayal, and our military would not understand," the source concluded.
Earlier, RBC-Ukraine reported that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was ready to freeze the war along the front line.
