Ukraine Faces 'Difficult Choice' as U.S. Demands Acceptance of Peace Plan

Reuters

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife Olena attend a commemoration ceremony in Kyiv, Ukraine 21 November 2025.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned on Friday that Ukraine risked losing its dignity and freedom — or Washington's backing — over a U.S. peace plan that endorses key Russian demands, a proposal U.S. President Donald Trump said Kyiv should accept within a week.

The U.S. President told Fox News Radio he believed Thursday was an appropriate deadline for Kyiv to accept the plan.

President Trump later told reporters that time was short given the approaching winter and need to end the bloodshed and that Zelenskiy would have to approve the plan.

"He'll have to like it, and if he doesn't like it, then you know, they should just keep fighting, I guess," he said.

"At some point he's going to have to accept something he hasn't accepted," President Trump said.

Recalling their fractious February meeting with President Zelenskiy, President Trump added: "You remember right in the Oval Office, not so long ago, I said, 'You don't have the cards.'"

Washington's 28-point plan calls on Ukraine to cede territory, accept limits on its military and renounce ambitions to join NATO. It also contains some proposals Moscow may object to and requires its forces to pull back from some areas they have captured, Reuters reported.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance said late on Friday that any plan to end Russia's war in Ukraine should preserve Ukrainian sovereignty and be acceptable to both countries but that it was a "fantasy" to think Ukraine could win if the U.S. were to give Kyiv more money or weapons or impose more sanctions on Moscow.

"There is a fantasy that if we just give more money, more weapons, or more sanctions, victory is at hand," Vance wrote on X.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin, who has refused to budge on Russia's key territorial and security demands, said on Friday the U.S. plan could be the basis of a final resolution of the nearly four-year-old conflict. He said Kyiv was against the plan but neither it nor its European allies understood the reality of Russian advances in Ukraine.

President Zelenskiy, who has rejected the plan's terms in the past as capitulation, appealed to Ukrainians for unity and said he would never betray Ukraine.

"Now, Ukraine can face a very difficult choice — either losing dignity or risk losing a major partner," he said in a speech to the nation, adding: "I will fight 24/7 to ensure that at least two points in the plan are not overlooked – the dignity and freedom of Ukrainians."

President Putin's investment envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, said on Friday the U.S. plan was aimed at preventing more Ukrainian deaths and loss of territory.

"Because of warmongers’ propaganda, many people miss that Trump’s Peace Plan is designed to save Ukraine from losing even more land and lives," Dmitriev wrote in English on the X social media platform.

In public, President Zelenskiy, who spoke on Friday with the leaders of Britain, Germany and France as well as with VP Vance, has appeared careful not to reject the U.S. plan or offend the Americans.

"We value the efforts of the United States, President Trump, and his team aimed at ending this war," President Zelenskiy said. "This must be a plan that ensures a real and dignified peace."

The plan is expected to dominate discussions on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg that European leaders are attending this weekend despite a boycott by President Trump.

"We all want this war to end, but how it ends matters. Russia has no legal right whatsoever to any concessions from the country it invaded," said the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas. "This is a very dangerous moment for all."

U.S. officials have said their plan was drafted after consultations with Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, a close President Zelenskiy ally who served as defence minister until July.

Umerov "agreed to the majority of the plan, after making several modifications, and presented it to President Zelenskiy," a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

However, Umerov denied agreeing to any of the plan's terms and said he had played only a technical role organising talks.

The plan would require Ukraine to withdraw from territory it still controls in 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 barred from joining the NATO military alliance, and its armed forces would be capped at 600,000 troops. NATO would agree never to station troops there.

Sanctions against Russia would be gradually lifted, Moscow would be invited back into the G8 group of industrialised countries, and frozen Russian assets would be pooled in an investment fund, with Washington given some of the profits.

One of Ukraine's main demands, for enforceable guarantees equivalent to NATO's mutual defence clause to deter Russia from attacking again, is dealt with in a single line with no details: "Ukraine will receive robust security guarantees".

Source: Reuters



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