UNITED STATES President Donald Trump believes that Russian and Ukrainian forces should cease hostilities and remain at the current line of contact, it was reported today.

The proposal would allow Moscow to keep large areas of Ukrainian territory.

President Trump told reporters late on Sunday that Russia and Ukraine should stop fighting and resolve the “details” over territory at future talks.

The US president said: “78 per cent of the land is already taken by Russia. They can negotiate something later down the road.”

He said: “Let it be cut the way it is.”

Earlier in the day, President Trump told Fox News that ending the conflict in Ukraine would result in Kiev ceding territory to the Russians.

The Russians have repeatedly said that what they describe as the “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine will end when its goals are achieved.

These goals include demilitarisation and de-nazifying Ukraine, establishing its neutral status and recognising the realities on the ground.

Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Regions, became part of Russia following referendums in September 2022.

Crimea and Sevastopol rejoined Russia after a referendum held in March 2014 against the backdrop of a coup in Ukraine.

Ukraine has previously insisted on reclaiming all of its land.

President Trump, who had promised during his election campaign last year to bring a swift end to the conflict, is set to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Hungary in the coming weeks.

President Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House last week where he reportedly insisted there was a chance to conclude the conflict “if flexibility is shown.”

Meanwhile, on the battlefield, the Ukrainian armed forces reportedly lost 4,200 servicemen and foreign mercenaries in a week of fighting on the borders of Lugansk, military expert Andrey Marochko told the TASS news agency.