U.S. President Donald Trump was prepared to walk out of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday after Putin issued sweeping demands over the future of Ukraine’s partially occupied regions, Axios reported Monday, citing an informed source.
According to the source, Putin demanded that Ukraine hand Russia full control of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, the latter of which remains about 25 percent under Ukrainian control, and freeze the front lines in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. “Putin wants all of it — and at one point seemed so firm on his demand that Trump was ready to walk away,” the outlet wrote.
“If Donetsk is the thing here and if there is no give, we should just not prolong this,” Trump reportedly told Putin.
Putin later “backed off” this demand, the source said.
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