Zelenskyy shares what he told Trump using Ukraine's battle map

“We had a map showing the battlefield situation with information about the percentage of territories that were occupied after 2014 and after 2022. When we arrived, they already had their own map,” Zelenskyy said.

The president emphasized that he wanted to demonstrate to US President Donald Trump what is happening on the battlefield now.

“For this, I don’t need our map, I can use your map, because I understand perfectly well what the situation is: where we are, about the presence in Donbas, in the east in general, why they cannot take this or that territory, and so on. These were my lengthy explanations, but it was an absolutely normal dialogue,” the head of state added.

He also said that there were certain mistakes on the map in the Donetsk region. "Somewhere it said that 73% of the region was occupied, but I pointed out that it was not 73%, but 67% or 69%. In the Sumy region, only 1% of the territory is occupied."

The importance of Donbas

“President Trump was interested in hearing the details. We spoke a lot about Donbas, about the east, about its importance. I pointed out that if our military withdraws from this territory and it is occupied, then we will open the way to Kharkiv,” Zelenskyy added.

The president also showed the American leader the roads to Dnipro, Ukraine’s industrial center.

“If we are talking about withdrawing from the east, we cannot do that. It’s not only a matter of the Constitution, it’s a matter of the country’s survival and of the strongest defensive lines, of the distances to industrial centers. If (Russian leader Vladimir – ed.) Putin gets this, then he will try to move further. Did President Trump agree? He understood,” the president of Ukraine stressed.

Zelenskyy also noted that in the Oval Office, they spoke a lot about Crimea, in particular, using the map.

“I pointed out that this is the biggest problem. By the way, he said that Ukraine’s withdrawal was, in his opinion, a big mistake. He noted that Crimea is the key to the full-scale war,” the head of state added.

According to Trump, if US President Barack Obama had not allowed Putin to occupy Crimea and part of Donbas, he would not have started the full-scale war.

“I said that Putin militarized Crimea, prepared it for a southern operation as a bridgehead. The problem was that when Crimea was occupied by the Russians, no strong sanctions were imposed against Russia that would have really had an impact. That is why real pressure and real security guarantees are very important,” Zelenskyy emphasized.

Summit in Washington on August 18

On August 18, negotiations were held in the White House with the participation of Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and several European leaders who came together with the President of Ukraine.

During the meeting, Trump interrupted the multilateral talks to call Vladimir Putin.

After the conversation with the Kremlin leader, the American president said that he had reached an agreement to prepare a meeting with the participation of Zelenskyy. The next step could be a trilateral summit, which may take place in one of the European countries.

According to Axios, Trump expects that negotiations between Zelenskyy and Putin may take place as early as this month.