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Ukraine faces a ‘difficult choice’ over US plan to end Russian war, Zelenskyy says
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Ukraine faces a ‘difficult choice’ over US plan to end Russian war, Zelenskyy says

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has opposed a US plan to end Russia’s invasion, while Russian leader Vladimir Putin welcomed the proposal, which endorses many key Russian demands.
US President Donald Trump has given Ukraine a week to accept the proposal, telling Fox News that he found Thursday an appropriate deadline for Ukraine to accept the plan.
The US 28-point plan calls on Ukraine to cede territory, accept limits on its military, abandon ambitions to join NATO and hold early elections.
Russia, meanwhile, would gain territory, be reintegrated into the global economy and rejoin the G8, under a draft plan.
Putin said on Saturday that the US plan could provide the basis for a final solution to the nearly four-year-old conflict, but threatened more land seizures if Ukraine abandoned negotiations.
He has previously refused to give in to Russia’s key territorial and security demands.

“Ukraine and its European allies still live under illusions and dream of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield,” the Russian president said in a televised meeting with his Security Council.

Vladimir Putin has welcomed the US proposal, which endorses many key Russian demands. Source: MONKEY / Reuterspool/EPA/Ramil Sitdikov

Zelenskyy, in a solemn speech to his country on Friday on the street outside his office, a venue he rarely uses for important speeches, appealed to Ukrainians for unity and said he would never betray Ukraine.

“This is one of the most difficult moments in our history… Now Ukraine may face a very difficult choice: either lose its dignity or risk losing an important partner,” he said.
“I will fight 24/7 to ensure that at least two points in the plan are not overlooked: the dignity and freedom of Ukrainians,” Zelenskyy said.
The Ukrainian president said he would “put forward arguments” and “propose alternatives” to the plan in its current form.
Zelenskyy had a phone call on Friday with the leaders of Britain, Germany and France, and later spoke with US Vice President JD Vance.
He said he had agreed with Vance to have their advisers work “to find a workable path to peace.”
When Trump was asked about Zelenskiy’s concerns about the plan, he insisted he “would have to like it” or the fighting would continue.

“At some point he’s going to have to accept something he hasn’t accepted,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Saturday.

Ukraine has rejected the terms of the plan as capitulation in the past, and an agreement on that basis could test the stability of Ukrainian society after nearly four years of brutal warfare.
Three sources told Reuters that Ukraine was working on a counter-proposal to the 28-point plan with Britain, France and Germany.
The Europeans were not consulted on the US plan and have expressed strong support for Ukraine.
“We all want this war to end, but how it ends matters. Russia has no legal right to any concessions from the country it invaded,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. “This is a very dangerous moment for everyone.”

U.S. officials, defending their plan, say it was drawn up after consultations with Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, a close ally of Zelensky who served as defense minister until July.

Umerov “agreed to most of the plan, after making several changes, and presented it to President Zelenskiy,” a senior US official said on Thursday.

Umerov denied agreeing to the terms of the plan and said he had played only a technical role in organizing talks.

What does the proposed peace plan contain?

The US plan would require Ukraine to withdraw from territory it still controls in the eastern provinces that Russia claims to have annexed, while Russia would give up smaller amounts of land it holds in other regions.
Ukraine would be permanently excluded from participating in the NATO military alliance, and its armed forces would be limited to 600,000 men. NATO would agree never to station troops there.
Ukraine would also hold early elections under the plan.

Sanctions on Russia would be gradually lifted, Moscow would be invited back to the G8 group of industrialized countries, and frozen Russian assets would be pooled into an investment fund, with the US getting a share of the profits.

One of Ukraine’s key demands, for enforceable guarantees equivalent to NATO’s mutual defense clause to deter Russia from attacking again, is addressed in one sentence without detail: “Ukraine will receive robust security guarantees.”
Trump said on Friday he expected the “strong” sanctions to have the intended effect on Russia, adding: “Their entire economy is based on oil.”
He said he would not lift sanctions before the implementation of the 28-point plan.

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