Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he is working on a proposal from the United States to end the Russia-Ukraine war, as Kyiv faces growing pressure from Washington and sustained attacks by Russian forces on the battlefield nearly four years into the conflict.
Zelenskyy said on Friday that he discussed US President Donald Trump’s plan in a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
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“We are working on the document prepared by the American side. This must be a plan that ensures a real and dignified peace”, the Ukrainian leader wrote on X.
“We are coordinating closely to make sure that the principled stances are taken into account. We coordinated the next steps and agreed that our teams will work together at the corresponding levels”.
Zelenskyy’s comments come as media reports indicate that Trump’s 28-point proposal to end the war endorses several of Russia’s top demands, and its war narrative, including that Ukraine cede additional territory, curb the size of its military and be barred from joining NATO.
At the same time, the West would lift sanctions on Russia, and Moscow would be invited back into the Group of Eight (G8), which it was expelled from for seizing and annexing Crimea in 2014, the AFP news agency said.
Citing two unnamed people familiar with the matter, the Reuters news agency reported on Friday that the Trump administration has threatened to cut intelligence sharing and weapons supplies for Kyiv to pressure it into accepting the plan.
The sources told the agency that Ukraine “was under greater pressure from Washington than during any previous peace discussions” as the US wants the country to sign “a framework of the deal” by next Thursday.
For their part, Ukraine’s European allies, which were not consulted on the US proposal, have stressed the need to safeguard “vital European and Ukrainian interests”, Germany said after the talks with Zelenskyy.
Merz, Macron and Starmer welcomed the “US efforts” to end the war, which began in February 2022 when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour.
But they assured the Ukrainian leader of their “unwavering and full support for Ukraine on the path to a lasting and just peace”.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, also said the EU and Ukraine want peace but will not give in to Russian aggression. “This is a very dangerous moment for all”, Kallas told reporters.
“We all want this war to end, but it matters how it ends,” he said. In the end, Ukraine must decide the terms of any agreement because Russia has no legal right to any concessions from the nation it invaded.
Fighting rages incessantly
Ukrainian forces are also facing significant challenges on the battlefield and deadly bombings by Moscow as the Trump administration pressures Ukraine to accept the deal.
According to Ukrainian officials, more bodies have been extracted from the rubble following a Russian missile attack earlier this week that killed at least 31 people.
The strike, which struck a residential apartment block, left 94 people injured, including 18 children.
On the eastern bank of the Oskil River, in the eastern Kharkiv region of Ukraine, about 5, 000 Ukrainian soldiers were reportedly trapped. The Ukrainian military did not respond right away.
The report comes as Ukrainian forces have been attempting to stop a Russian assault on Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad, which are both in exile.
Five people were killed and three others were hurt by a Russian attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Thursday, according to emergency services. The Zaporizhia region, which borders the two banks of the Dnipro River and is home to the city in southeast Ukraine, is gaining ground for Russia.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, claimed on Friday that Zelenskyy should be persuaded to “get it now rather than later” by the country’s advances on the battlefield.
