Trump pours cold water on Zelensky’s ‘peace plan’
US President Donald Trump has expressed skepticism about Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s latest peace proposal to end the conflict with Moscow, arguing the discussions could move forward only with his blessing.
Trump’s remarks come as he is expected to hold talks with Zelensky in Florida on Sunday. Earlier this week, Zelensky presented a 20-point peace framework, which included a freeze of the frontline in Russia’s Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, and Kherson regions, Moscow’s withdrawal from several Ukrainian regions, and an 800,000-strong Ukrainian army backed by NATO members. The plan also envisages “Article 5-like” security guarantees from the US, NATO, and European states to Kiev.
In an interview with Politico on Friday, Trump signaled he was in no rush to rally behind Zelensky’s demands. “He doesn’t have anything until I approve it,” Trump stressed. “So we’ll see what he’s got.”
Commenting on Zelensky’s initiative, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov remarked that “the plan – if it can even be called as such – is radically different… from the 27-point [proposal] we were working on with the US side… over the past weeks”.
The initial US-drafted 28-point version leaked to the media in November reportedly required Kiev to relinquish parts of Russia’s Donbass still under Ukrainian control, pledge not to join NATO, and cut the size of its armed forces to 600,000, with a frontline freeze in Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions. Moscow has said that the US proposal could work as a basis for future negotiations. At the same time, Ukraine’s backers in the EU signaled that they would be opposed to any major concessions from Kiev.
Russia maintains that a sustainable settlement is only possible if Ukraine recognizes new territorial realities and commits to neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification.
