Trump says Ukraine's Donbas region will have to be 'cut up' to end the
Russian invasion
[October 20, 2025]
By CHRIS MEGERIAN
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that the
Donbas region of Ukraine should be “cut up," leaving most of it in
Russian hands, to end a war that has dragged on for nearly four years.
“Let it be cut the way it is,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.
“It's cut up right now," adding that you can “leave it the way it is
right now.”
“They can negotiate something later on down the line,” he said. But for
now, both sides of the conflict should "stop at the battle line — go
home, stop fighting, stop killing people.”
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.
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’s Karachaganak field,
alongside Orenburg's own oil and gas fields.
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,
“due to an emergency situation following a drone attack.”
Ukraine's General Staff said in a statement Sunday that a “large-scale
fire” erupted at the Orenburg plant, and that one of its gas processing
and purification units was damaged.
Kyiv has ramped up attacks in recent months on Russian energy facilities
it says both fund and directly fuel Moscow’s war effort.
Trump says Ukraine may have to give up land for peace
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’s
aggression.
Asked in a Fox News interview conducted Thursday whether Russian
President Vladimir Putin would be open to ending the war “without taking
significant property from Ukraine,” Trump responded: “Well, he’s going
to take something.”
“They fought and he has a lot of property. He’s won certain property,”
Trump said. “We’re the only nation that goes in, wins a war and then
leaves.”
The interview was aired Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,”
but was conducted before Trump spoke to Putin on Thursday and met with
Zelenskyy on Friday.
Then on Sunday evening, while flying from Florida to Washington, Trump —
who plans to meet Putin in Budapest in coming weeks — reiterated his
stance that Ukraine will need to give up territory by having the
fighting “stop at the lines where they are.”
“The rest is very tough to negotiate if you're going to say, ‘You take
this, we take that,’" he said. "You know, there are so many different
permutations."
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President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One,
Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, en route to Joint Base Andrews, Md., as he
returns from a trip to Florida. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
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 expressed greater openness to helping Ukraine win the
war.
Contrary to Kyiv’s hopes, Trump did not commit to providing it with
Tomahawks following his meeting with Zelenskyy. The missiles would
be the longest-range weapons in Ukraine’s arsenal and would allow it
to strike targets deep inside Russia, including Moscow, with
precision.
Russians modified bombs for deeper strikes
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.
Kharkiv’s regional prosecutor’s office said in a statement that
Russia used the weapon called the UMPB-5R, which can travel up to
130 kilometers (80 miles), in an attack on the city of Lozava on
Saturday afternoon. The city lies 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of
Kharkiv, a considerable distance for the weapon to fly.
Russia continued to strike other parts of Ukraine closer to the
front line. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, at least 11 people were
injured after Russian drones hit the Shakhtarske area. At least 14
five-story buildings and a store were damaged, said acting regional
Gov. Vladyslav Haivanenko.
A Russian strike also hit a coal mine in the Dnipropetrovk region.
Some 192 miners were brought to the surface without injury, the
company that operates the mine said.
Ukraine's General Staff also claimed a separate drone strike hit
Russia's Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery, in the Samara region near
Orenburg, sparking a blaze and damaging its main refining units.
The Novokuibyshevsk facility, operated by Russian gas major Rosneft,
has an annual capacity of 4.9 million tons, and turns out over 20
kinds of oil-based products. Russian authorities did not immediately
acknowledge the Ukrainian claim or discuss any damage.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement early Sunday that its
air defense forces had shot down 45 Ukrainian drones during the
night, including 12 over the Samara region, one over the Orenburg
region and 11 over the Saratov region neighboring Samara.
In turn, Ukraine's air force reported Sunday that Russia during the
night launched 62 drones into Ukrainian territory. It said 40 of
these were shot down, or veered off course due to electronic
jamming.
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