Trump: 'Cut Up' Donbas to End Invasion 10/20 08:12

   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.

   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."

   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.