Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his nation faces “one of the most difficult moments in our history” as US president Donald Trump gave Kyiv until next Thursday to agree to end its war with Russia on terms that heavily favour the Kremlin.
Mr Zelenskiy said on Friday that he would work with Washington to forge a plan that protects Ukraine’s national interests and dignity, and he spoke to European leaders who fear being sidelined from any peace process by the White House and the Kremlin.
The US presented Ukraine with a 28-point peace plan on Thursday that would oblige it to give up parts of the eastern Donetsk region that it still controls, abandon its Nato membership ambitions and accept limits on the size of its defence forces.
Almost all the Ukrainian territory now occupied by Moscow’s troops would be recognised as de facto Russian under the proposals, which make no provision for war crimes prosecutions against Russia and offer only vague security guarantees to Kyiv.
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“Now is one of the most difficult moments in our history. Now the pressure on Ukraine is some of the heaviest. Now Ukraine may face a very difficult choice: either the loss of dignity, or the risk of losing a key partner. Either 28 difficult points, or an extremely difficult winter – the most difficult,” Mr Zelenskiy said in sombre address.
“Ukraine will work quickly ... for as long as it takes, in 24/7 mode. I will fight so that among all the points of the plan, at least two are not lost – these are the dignity and freedom of Ukrainians,” he added.
“We will and we must do everything so that the result is the end of the war and not the end of Ukraine, the end of Europe and global peace ... We believe that Europe will be with us.”
Shortly after Mr Zelenskiy’s address was broadcast, Mr Trump told Fox News that Thanksgiving next week was a deadline for agreement on the plan. “I’ve had a lot of deadlines, but if things are working well, you tend to extend the deadlines. But Thursday is, we think, is an appropriate time.”
He did not say what would happen if either side rejected the proposals, but Reuters quoted two informed sources as saying the US had threatened to cut its supply of weapons and intelligence to Kyiv if it baulked at Mr Trump’s plan.
Russian president Vladimir Putin gave quiet approval to the proposals which, according to multiple reports, were drafted with input from Kremlin negotiator Kirill Dmitriev and Steve Witkoff, a long-time property developer who, as an international envoy for Mr Trump, has repeatedly parroted Moscow’s talking points on the war.
“I suppose that it could be a basis for a final peace settlement,” Mr Putin told a gathering of his country’s security council on Friday evening.
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Mr Zelenskiy spoke to US vice-president JD Vance on Friday afternoon, and said they were “working to make the path forward dignified and truly effective for achieving a lasting peace”.
In a flurry of calls, Mr Zelenskiy also talked to Nato secretary general Mark Rutte and jointly with French president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Friedrich Merz and British prime minister Keir Starmer.
“They agreed to co-ordinate closely with each other, with other European partners, and with Washington ... They pledged to continue pursuing the goal of safeguarding vital European and Ukrainian interests in the long term,” Mr Merz’s office said. “They agreed that any agreement affecting European states, the European Union, or Nato requires the approval of European partners or a consensus among the allies.”
