After President Volodymyr Zelensky sharply rejected his proposed peace proposal, President Donald Trump issued a severe ultimatum to Ukraine.
Designed with assistance from Trump’s envoy, General Keith Kellogg, this plan proposes for Ukraine to give Russia significant territory concessions including huge portions of Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhia as well as Crimea and other areas.
Ukraine would keep access to the Dnipro River and keep just a small part of Kherson in exchange; the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power facility would come under American administration.
Declining the offer completely, Zelensky said it violated Ukraine’s fundamental rights and sovereignty. “There’s not anything to discuss”. This violates our Constitution, he said, as Al Jazeera notes. Emphasizing that embracing such phrases would only help Moscow’s stance, he cautioned against talking about Crimea since it would only help to prolong the conflict. “As soon as talks about Crimea and our sovereign territories start, they enter a pattern Russia wants—prolonging the war,” he said.
Zelensky’s strong resistance notwithstanding, Trump’s supporters go ahead with the project. Steve Witkoff is scheduled to visit Moscow and directly submit the idea to Russian President Vladimir Putin. General Kellogg will oversee the American mission concurrently following the downgrading of high-level peace negotiations in London.
While Vice President JD Vance, speaking from India, gave a clear ultimatum: “It’s time for them to either say yes or for the United States to walk away from this process,” the Daily Express notes. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio decided to fly to Moscow instead.
Trump attacked Zelensky’s remarks in The Wall Street Journal on the social media platform Truth Social, stressing that the Ukrainian leader reaffirmed Ukraine will not acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory.
Declaring that Crimea was lost under Barack Obama’s presidency and should not even be discussed today, Trump labelled these comments as negative for peace discussions. He questioned Zelensky’s lack of battle for recovery of Crimea as Russia had first acquired it without resistance.
Trump cautioned that Zelensky’s stubbornness to compromise could jeopardize the prospect of a peaceful settlement. “Inflammatory words like Zelensky’s make it tough to settle this war,” he said. He underlined the seriousness of the matter since the continuous fighting causes around 5,000 deaths from both sides every week. Highlighting the need to save lives, he said:
The former president expressed a sense of urgency about striking an agreement and said that Zelensky’s remarks would spread the bloodshed further:
Nobody wants the comments Zelensky made today just to prolong the “kill field!” We are quite near a Deal, but the man with “no cards to play” should now, at last, GET IT DONE. He said he wanted to assist Russia and Ukraine in negotiating what he called a “Complete and Total MESS.”
Zelensky responded by confirming Ukraine’s stance on Telegram, saying that their red lines remain the same: no loss of territory, no forced neutrality, and no disrespect of the sorrow borne by Ukrainians, even while they are open to several forms for a ceasefire and long-lasting peace.
Like Kyiv’s position, the French presidency said that any peace deal must honour Ukraine’s territorial integrity entirely. The probability of a resolution is yet unknown as diplomatic attempts under increasing tensions continue.