President Vladimir Putin demanded that Ukraine give up complete control of the Donbas in talks with Trump, but said he was prepared to freeze the conflict in the remaining two regions of Kherson and Zapariszhzhia, the Financial Times reported on August 16.

The revelation highlights that Putin made almost no concessions to Trump during their historic meeting in Alaska the day before.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier that Ukraine was not prepared to cede any territory to Russia. He also repeated his refusal to give up Donbas in his conversation with Trump and European leaders during Trump's debrief following his meeting in Alaska with Putin, Reuters reports.

Russia took full control of the northern of the two regions, Luhansk, in July but still does not control all of Donetsk, the southern region that together make up the Donbas. Russia also controls the coastlines of Kherson and Zapariszhzhia and even freezing the conflict along current lines would leave Russia with a land bridge connecting the Russian region of Rostov with the Crimea.

Handing over control of Donetsk would be particularly painful for Kyiv, which has invested heavily in extensive defences to protect its "fortress" cities in the region, which would be under Russian control if the deal goes through.

Trump also watered down the US commitment to a 30-day ceasefire, originally suggested by the White House in February, saying that a ceasefire was “not appropriate” and that the Kremlin and Bankova should seek a peace deal instead.

Trump said in a social media post: “We have decided that the war must be ended, not just a temporary ceasefire. If Monday’s meeting with Zelenskiy goes well, we will schedule a meeting with President Putin.”

Zelenskiy, backed by his European partners, has also been insisting on a complete and unconditional ceasefire before any peace negotiations can start. Late on August 16 Zelenskiy also rejected Trump's proposal t abandon the idea of a ceasefire before talks can start.

Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt represented many in Europe saying: “It’s official: Trump has capitulated to Putin by dropping the demand for a ceasefire. Instead the fighting will go on until there is a peace agreement that satisfies Putin. His terms are well known. This was a hugely successful outcome for Putin. We are heading towards a long war.”

It is not clear what Trump’s position on Putin’s demands for control over the four occupied regions is. Ahead of the meeting Trump talked about potential “land swaps” and said that Ukraine should be prepared to give up “some” territory. However, it is not clear what he was thinking of when it comes to territory Ukraine could swap after it was driven out of its occupation of the Russian Kursk region earlier this year.

Moreover, Putin and Trump seem to contradict each other on if an agreement was reached. During the press conference Putin said that an “understanding” had been reached with Trump, mistranslated by many as an “agreement”, but clearly referring to his demands that Kyiv give up control of the Donbas. Trump said clearly that “no deal” had been struck and that there was “one big sticking point.”

“Beware of quick translations. The transcript of Putin's remarks in Alaska have him talking about "the agreement that we’ve reached together" but he used the word ponimanie, which better translates as the much vaguer "understandings",” political commentator Mark Galeotti tweeted.

Putin has been demanding from the start, full control of the Donbas, one of his primary war goals, and the revelation suggests that Putin did not offer any major compromises during his meeting with Trump. Indeed, as more details of the meeting come out, it appears to have gone badly and floundered quickly on the issue of territories. The meeting broke up after only three hours, the working lunch was cancelled, and the press conference was perfunctory with no questions allowed.

Speaking to top officials in Moscow a day after the talks in Alaska, Putin said the talks were "timely" and "very useful," AFP reports. "We have not had direct negotiations of this kind at this level for a long time," he said, adding: "We had the opportunity to calmly and in detail reiterate our position." Going into the talks, Putin said no end of the conflict can be reached until the “root causes” are addressed – the Kremlin code words for Putin’s maximalistic demands.

Trump has been criticised by some commentators for not being tougher on Putin and threatening more crushing sanctions on Russia and more material support for Ukraine.

Trump appeared to pass off the responsibility for accepting Putin’s demands to Zelenskiy, who he said needs to “make a deal” with Putin.

“Zelenskiy’s choices are stark. It now appears that he is rejecting the idea of swapping northern Donetsk agglomeration for occupied parts of Kharkiv, Sumy and Mykolaiv regions,” journalist and bne IntelliNews columnist Leonid Ragozin said in a social media post. “This way he is buying time till the north of Donbas is occupied which may happen sooner or later. But when it happens, he’ll have to explain what his soldiers were dying for during this period. He’ll need divine intervention to change the trajectory of this war during this period. His Western allies are not up for that role.”

Zelenskiy is due to meet with Trump in Washington on August 18 along with selected European heads of state to work out the next steps.

“The game for Ukraine’s future has entered a decisive phase. And Putin has once again shown himself to be a cunning and ruthless player,” said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk ahead of the meeting.

Trump said that if the Washington meeting with Zelenskiy goes well there could  be a trilateral meeting including Putin and Zelenskiy.

Trump said: “We have decided that the war must be ended, not just a temporary ceasefire. If Monday’s meeting with Zelenskiy goes well, we will schedule a meeting with President Putin.”

However, Putin’s advisor Yury Ushakov denied that the possible three-way talks had been discussed with Putin at the summit. "The topic of a trilateral summit between Putin, Trump and Zelenskiy has not been raised so far,” Ushakov said in an interview with TASS.