ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) \u2014 President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0said Sunday that the Donbas region of Ukraine should be \u201ccut up,” leaving most of it in Russian hands, to end a\u00a0war that has dragged on\u00a0for nearly four years.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet it be cut the way it is,\u201d he told reporters aboard Air Force One. \u201cIt’s cut up right now,” adding that you can \u201cleave it the way it is right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can negotiate something later on down the line,\u201d he said. But for now, both sides of the conflict should “stop at the battle line \u2014 go home, stop fighting, stop killing people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump’s latest comments came after Ukrainian drones struck a major gas processing plant in southern Russia, sparking a fire and forcing it to suspend its intake of gas from Kazakhstan, Russian and Kazakh authorities said Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Orenburg plant, run by state-owned gas giant Gazprom and located in a region of the same name near the Kazakh border, is part of a production and processing complex that is one of the world’s largest facilities of its kind, with an annual capacity of 45 billion cubic meters. It handles gas condensate from Kazakhstan\u2019s Karachaganak field, alongside Orenburg’s own oil and gas fields.<\/p>\n
According to regional Gov. Yevgeny Solntsev, the drone strikes set fire to a workshop at the plant and damaged part of it. The Kazakh Energy Ministry on Sunday said, citing a notification from Gazprom, that the plant was temporarily unable to process gas originating in Kazakhstan, \u201cdue to an emergency situation following a drone attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement Sunday that a \u201clarge-scale fire\u201d erupted at the Orenburg plant, and that one of its gas processing and purification units was damaged.<\/p>\n
Kyiv has\u00a0ramped up attacks in recent months on Russian energy facilities\u00a0it says both fund and directly fuel Moscow\u2019s war effort.<\/p>\n
Trump says Ukraine may have to give up land for peace<\/p>\n
Trump has edged back in the direction of pressing Ukraine to give up on retaking land it has lost to Russia, in exchange for an end to Moscow\u2019s aggression.<\/p>\n
Asked in a Fox News interview conducted Thursday whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would be open to ending the war \u201cwithout taking significant property from Ukraine,\u201d Trump responded: \u201cWell, he\u2019s going to take something.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey fought and he has a lot of property. He\u2019s won certain property,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe\u2019re the only nation that goes in, wins a war and then leaves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The interview was aired Sunday on Fox News\u2019 \u201cSunday Morning Futures,\u201d but was conducted before\u00a0Trump spoke to Putin on Thursday and met with Zelenskyy on Friday.<\/p>\n
Then on Sunday evening, while flying from Florida to Washington, Trump \u2014 who plans to meet Putin in Budapest in coming weeks \u2014 reiterated his stance that Ukraine will need to give up territory by having the fighting \u201cstop at the lines where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rest is very tough to negotiate if you’re going to say, \u2018You take this, we take that,\u2019” he said. “You know, there are so many different permutations.”<\/p>\n
The comments amounted to another shift in position on the war by the U.S. leader. In recent weeks, Trump had shown growing impatience with Putin and\u00a0expressed greater openness\u00a0to helping Ukraine win the war.<\/p>\n
Contrary to Kyiv\u2019s hopes, Trump\u00a0did not commit to providing it with Tomahawks\u00a0following his meeting with Zelenskyy. The missiles would be the longest-range weapons in Ukraine\u2019s arsenal and would allow it to strike targets deep inside Russia, including Moscow, with precision.<\/p>\n
Russians modified bombs for deeper strikes<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Ukrainian prosecutors claim that Moscow is modifying its deadly aerial-guided bombs to strike civilians deeper in Ukraine. Local authorities in Kharkiv said Russia struck a residential neighborhood using a new rocket-powered aerial bomb for the first time.<\/p>\n