Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appears to be at his most perilous crossroads in nearly four years of sustained war: agree to the Trump administration’s new proposal to end the war or risk losing U.S. support moving forward.
“The pressure on Ukraine is now at its most intense. Ukraine may now face a very difficult choice: either the loss of dignity, or the risk of losing a key partner, or 28 difficult points, or an extremely harsh winter,” Zelensky said in a video address on Friday, referencing the U.S.’s 28-point plan to end the conflict.
The president’s plan would force Ukraine to accept conditions that Zelensky and others have said were nonstarters and represented capitulation and surrender. At the same time, the Ukrainian president’s government is facing a major corruption scandal, additional pressure on the battlefield, and the now-annual Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure as winter approaches.
President Donald Trump said he wants both sides to agree to the deal by Thanksgiving, but said he is willing to “extend it” if “things are working well.”
“Well, we have, you know, I’ve had a lot of deadlines, but if things are working well, you tend to extend the deadlines,” Trump said on Fox News radio. “But Thursday is, we think, an appropriate time.”
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is in Ukraine, making him the latest U.S. official to make the journey to the war-torn country. He is meeting with senior government, defense, and defense industry leaders during his visit.
“It was strongly implied to the Ukrainians that the United States expects them to agree to a peace deal,” a U.S. official told the Washington Examiner. “Any changes will be decided upon by the president himself.”
Zelensky and Driscoll spoke with Vice President JD Vance on Friday.
“We managed to cover a lot of details of the American side’s proposals for ending the war, and we’re working to make the path forward dignified and truly effective for achieving a lasting peace,” Zelensky said. “I’m grateful for the attention and willingness to work together with us and our partners. We agreed to work together with the U.S. and Europe at the level of national security advisers to make the path to peace truly doable.”
The proposal, which could still be changed, would force Ukraine to give up additional territory that Russia has not conquered militarily, reduce the size of its military by about 25%, and enshrine in its constitution that it will not join NATO.
Russia occupies most of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. There has been fighting in this region for a decade. The peace proposal would allow Russia to keep the land it currently occupies, both in the Donbas and outside the area, and would give it the area of the Donbas that it does not occupy.
“Based on what we’ve seen there, it is incredibly one-sided,” Kurt Volker, a former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, told the Washington Examiner. “Places all kinds of restrictions on Ukraine, but no restrictions on Russia. So it treats the issue as though Ukraine is a threat to Russia, rather than the other way around, when it is Russia that has attacked Ukraine twice. So it’s completely upside down.”
“As for the Russians, they’re probably delighted that the U.S. is putting out this kind of thing to put pressure on the Ukrainians, and they’ve had to do nothing at all, so they’re just going to sit back and watch,” he continued.
Trump has repeatedly sought to end the war with little success. He has vacillated between blaming both Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, but he has more frequently publicly put pressure on Zelensky.
“I think there is a deep reluctance to really put pressure on Russia and confront Russia, probably because they would like to get to the other side of this, unless sanctions and do business with Russia,” Volker added. “That’s probably the goal. But the problem with that is that Putin takes advantage of that. Takes advantage of Trump and the administration by knowing that they’re not really going to put pressure on, so he just keeps having his maximalist demands.”
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Friday on social media that when he recently visited the U.S. to discuss the development of this proposal, he “provided no assessments or, even more so, approvals of any points.”
ARMY SECRETARY DAN DRISCOLL VISITS UKRAINE WITH KYIV PESSIMISTIC ABOUT RENEWED NEGOTIATING EFFORTS
Zelensky spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. While the Ukrainian leader said they “value the efforts of the United States,” the deal “must” ensure “a real and dignified peace.”
European leaders have increased their military support for Ukraine in light of the Trump administration’s desire to stop footing the cost of providing U.S. aid to the Ukrainian military. Several Eastern European countries have reported acts of provocation in their airspace, which they have accused Russia of being behind.
