and its European allies<\/a> were startled by the proposal — which would effectively force Ukraine to capitulate by giving up land, cutting its army, pledging never to join NATO and holding snap elections.<\/p>\nRussia, meanwhile, would not only gain territory but be reintegrated into the global economy and rejoin the G8, under a draft of the plan, seen by AFP.<\/p>\n
In Moscow, the Kremlin was bullish, threatening Zelensky to negotiate or lose even more territory.<\/p>\n
Zelensky said: “I will present arguments, I will persuade, I will propose alternatives.”<\/p>\n
Recalling how he marshalled Kyiv’s response to the Russian invasion in February 2022, he said: “We did not betray Ukraine then, we will not do so now.”<\/p>\n
He spoke to US Vice President JD Vance on Friday (local time), a source in the Ukrainian president’s office said, without elaborating on the discussion.<\/p>\n
And the Ukrainian leader plans to speak directly to Trump in the “coming days”, his office said Thursday.<\/p>\n
He also held an emergency call with German, French and British leaders as Europe, cut out of the process, also scrambled to respond.<\/p>\n
‘Most difficult moment’<\/p>\n
The US plan envisages recognising Moscow-annexed Crimea and occupied eastern Ukraine as “de-facto” Russian, also requiring Kyiv to pull out from parts of the Donetsk region that it still controls.<\/p>\n
The front line would be frozen in the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.<\/p>\n
Kyiv would also cap the size of its army to 600,000, rule out ever joining NATO and have no NATO troops deployed to its territory.<\/p>\n
In return, it would get unspecified “reliable security guarantees” and a fund for reconstruction using parts of Russia’s frozen assets.<\/p>\n
Zelensky has made no illusions about how much of a corner Ukraine has been backed into with the proposals.<\/p>\n
“Right now is one of the most difficult moments in our history,” Zelensky said in the address to the nation, wearing all black.<\/p>\n
“The pressure on Ukraine is one of the hardest. Ukraine may face a very difficult choice: either the loss of dignity or the risk of losing a key partner,” he said, warning of a complete break with Washington.<\/p>\n
Trump’s administration has rejected accusations that it worked on the proposal with Moscow, which, in turn, said it had not officially received the draft.<\/p>\n
The White House insisted that it was a “good plan” for both Russian and Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Zelensky has also sought to rally the support of his key European allies.<\/p>\n
Following a call, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stressed their “unwavering and full support for Ukraine on the path to a lasting and just peace”.<\/p>\n
The United States bypassed Europe with the plan, with many in the EU unsettled by the prospect of the war ending on Moscow’s terms.<\/p>\n
Germany’s Merz stressed that Ukraine’s army “must remain capable of defending itself”.<\/p>\n
Berlin said the current front line “remains the starting point for any understanding” — in contrast to the US plan that would immediately hand vast territories to Moscow.<\/p>\n
‘Negotiate now’<\/p>\n
The Kremlin appeared to see victory in the vicinity — either through diplomacy or on the battlefield.<\/p>\n
Its spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Zelensky better “negotiate now” or lose more of his country.<\/p>\n
“The space for the freedom of decision-making is shrinking for him as territories are lost,” Peskov said.<\/p>\n
Moscow has been calling for Zelensky to be removed since the start of the invasion. The US plan calls for Ukraine to hold elections within 100 days.<\/p>\n
No official timeline has been given for Ukraine to respond to the proposals, but Zelensky has said he will speak to Trump in the coming days.<\/p>\n
In Kyiv, people were divided over whether Ukraine should engage with the proposal and negotiate a better position or reject it altogether as a call for capitulation.<\/p>\n
Yanina, a 41-year-old seamstress, said the proposal will lead to nowhere and war will continue.<\/p>\n
“Neither us or Russia will make concessions,” she said.<\/p>\n
Many Ukrainian politicians did not hide their anger at the plan.<\/p>\n
“Being f***ing mind blown has become our norm,” one MP told AFP.<\/p>\n
– AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ania Tsoukanova, AFP Ukraine’s president is pushing back on a United States plan to end the war…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-146833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}