Trump says Russia made 'big concession' by not seizing whole of Ukraine

US president also criticises Putin for 'bad timing' of attack on Kyiv that killed at least 12 and injured dozens more

- ANDREW FEINBERG

US president Donald Trump last night said that Russia’s failure to forcibly seize and occupy the entirety of Ukraine’s territory amounts to a “pretty big concession” to Kyiv as he continues to push for Russia and Ukraine to come to a settlement to end the war Moscow started three years ago.

Speaking in the Oval Office during a bilateral meeting with Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Mr Trump insisted he is putting pressure on Russian president Vladimir Putin behind the scenes, as reporters asked him what he would ask the Russian leader to give up to match the massive territorial concessions he has asked Ukraine to make as a way to find an end to Europe’s bloodiest conflict since the end of the Second World War.

Mr Trump replied: “Stopping the war, stopping [from] taking the whole country.”

He added that not seizing all of Ukraine’s sovereign land – the goal Putin had laid out when he launched the invasion in February 2022 and which was foiled by Ukraine’s military resistance – was a “pretty big concession” in his view.

His claims came just hours after he issued a rare and pointed criticism of Putin in response to Moscow unleashing the deadliest airstrike on Kyiv since last year, killing at least 12 people.

In a post on his Truth Social website earlier, Mr Trump said he was “not happy” with the Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital, which came less than 24 hours after he baselessly accused Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky of starting and working to prolong the war.

The strike was described by the Ukrainian defence ministry as “massive” and consisting of attacks by “cruise missiles, drones and ballistic weapons” in what the ministry called “yet another strike on peaceful cities and Ukrainian homes.”