Trump gives Ukraine Thursday deadline to accept peace deal with Russia

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Ukraine faced losing its dignity and freedom or Washington’s support over a US peace plan that endorses key Russian demands and which Donald Trump said Kyiv should agree to by Thursday. The US president told Fox News Radio he believed next Thursday was an appropriate deadline for Kyiv to accept the plan. In a solemn address to the nation which he delivered in the street outside his office, a location he uses only rarely for major addresses, Zelensky had earlier on Friday appealed to Ukrainians for unity and said he would never betray Ukraine. “Now is one of the most difficult moments of our history. Now, the pressure on Ukraine is one of the heaviest. Now, Ukraine can face a very difficult choice – either losing dignity or risk losing a major 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,” Zelensky said. Washington has presented Kyiv with a 28-point plan, which calls for Ukraine to cede territory, accept limits to its military and renounce ambitions to join Nato. The United States threatened to cut off intelligence sharing and weapons supplies for Ukraine if it does not accept the deal, two sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity to disclose the contents of private meetings. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, a senior US official later said it was not accurate to say the US threatened to withhold intelligence. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the US proposal could be the basis of a resolution of the conflict but that if Kyiv turned down the plan then Russian forces would advance further. “I believe that it can be used as the basis for a final peaceful settlement,” Putin told senior officials at a meeting of the Russian Security Council, which is like a modern-day politburo of Russia’s most powerful officials. Putin added that the 28-point plan had not been discussed in detail yet with the United States, but that Moscow had received a copy of it. Putin said that Ukraine was against the plan but that neither Kyiv nor European powers understood the reality that Russian forces were advancing in Ukraine and would continue to advance unless there was peace. Russia controls just over 19 per cent of Ukraine, or 115,500 sq km, up just one percentage point from two years ago. Moscow wants to gain control of all of the Donbas, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as the whole of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. A US military delegation met Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday. The US ambassador and the army public affairs chief travelling with the delegation described the meeting as a success and said Washington sought an “aggressive timeline” for the US and Ukraine to sign a document. Zelensky held a phone call on Friday with the leaders of allies Britain, Germany and France, and later spoke to US Vice-President J.D. Vance. He said he had agreed with Vance to work at adviser level “to find a workable path to peace”. Three sources later said that Ukraine was working on a counterproposal to the 28-point plan with Britain, France and Germany. The Europeans have not been consulted on the US plan and have expressed strong support for Kyiv. In earlier remarks, Zelensky appeared careful not to reject the US plan or to offend the Americans. “We value the efforts of the United States, President Trump, and his team aimed at ending this war. We are working on the document prepared by the American side. This must be a plan that ensures a real and dignified peace,” he said. But the plan’s call for terms that Kyiv has rejected in the past as capitulation could test the stability of Ukrainian society after nearly four years of relentless warfare. “Russia gets everything it wants and Ukraine gets not very much. If Zelensky accepts this I anticipate huge political, social and economic instability in Ukraine,” said Tim Ash of Britain’s Chatham House think tank. European leaders expressed their strong support for Kyiv. “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.” US officials, defending their plan, have said it was drafted after consultations with Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, a close Zelensky 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 Zelensky”, a senior US official said on Thursday. Umerov denied agreeing to any of the plan’s terms, and said he had played only a technical role organising talks: “This is not within my authority and does not correspond to the procedure,” he wrote on Telegram. The Kremlin said Russia had not received anything official from the United States about a peace plan. Kyiv should make a “responsible decision”, and do it now, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. The plan, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, would require Ukraine to withdraw from territory it still controls in eastern provinces 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 the Nato alliance’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.” Trump has accepted some of Russia’s justifications for its 2022 invasion of its neighbour while also expressing some impatience with Moscow. Last month he cancelled a proposed summit with Putin and imposed sanctions on Russia’s two main oil companies, set to come into full effect on Friday, Washington’s deadline for foreign buyers to wind down Russian oil purchases. Trump said on Friday he expected the “powerful” sanctions to have their intended effect on Russia, adding: “Their whole economy is based on oil.” He said he would not remove the sanctions before implementation of the 28-point plan.

Trump gives Ukraine Thursday deadline to accept peace deal with Russia

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Zelensky says his country faces the ‘difficult choice’ of losing its dignity or risking the support of Washington, a major ally

Zelensky says his country faces the ‘difficult choice’ of losing its dignity or risking the support of Washington, a major ally