Donald Trump has categorically denied allegations that he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into conceding to Russia’s demands as a way to bring the ongoing conflict to a halt. The meeting between Trump and Zelensky, which took place behind closed doors last Friday, reportedly did not go as planned. According to sources cited by the Financial Times, Trump allegedly unleashed a torrent of expletives towards Zelensky during their discussion.

Insiders suggest that Trump’s comments echoed those made by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone conversation the day before the meeting. In particular, Trump is said to have pushed for Ukraine to cede the entire Donbas region to Moscow as part of a peace settlement. These claims have sparked widespread controversy and debate.

However, on Sunday, Trump refuted these claims, asserting that he never broached the topic of territorial concessions. Instead, he expressed a desire for an immediate cessation of hostilities, with the current battle lines serving as temporary borders. “We believe they should halt at the existing lines—the battle lines,” Trump remarked to reporters when questioned about the alleged pressure he placed on Zelensky to agree to Putin’s terms for a ceasefire.

‘The rest is very tough to negotiate if you’re going to say, ‘You take this, we take that’. There are just so many different permutations,’ he added. ‘So what I say is they should stop right now at the battle lines. Go home, stop killing people and be done.’ Trump and Putin announced on Thursday they plan to hold talks on the war in Ukraine at a meeting in Budapest, Turkey in coming weeks.

And now, Zelensky says he is ready to join Trump and Putin for that meeting should he be asked. ‘If it is an invitation in a format where we meet as three or, as it’s called, shuttle diplomacy… then in one format or another, we will agree,’ Zelensky told reporters on Monday.

A European Union diplomat detailed to Politico how Putin’s call with the U.S. president on Thursday ‘appears to have changed President Trump’s mind on Ukraine once again.’ They also said that the meeting on Friday was not ‘as bleak as reported.’

Trump appeared to adopt some of Putin’s talking points verbatim, even when they contradicted his own recent statements about Russia’s weaknesses, claimed the European officials briefed on the meeting.

Those familiar with the bilateral chat recounted to Financial Times a scene where Trump tossed aside maps of the frontline of war in Ukraine as the two world leaders devolved into a ‘shouting match.’ Trump told Zelensky that if he does not accept Russia’s terms for ending the war, Putin would ‘destroy’ Ukraine.

While Zelensky and his team went to the White House last week with the intent of persuading Trump to supply them with long-range Tomahawk missiles, they walked away without striking a deal with Trump. When asked on Sunday what should happen to the Donbas region, Trump said: ‘Let it be cut the way it is. It’s cut up right now.’

‘I think 78 percent of the land is already taken by Russia,’ he went on. ‘You leave it the way it is right now. They can negotiate something later on down the line.’ Trump has renewed his demands for the war between Russia and Ukraine to end following the ceasefire he organized between Israel and Hamas.