Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is under pressure to accept President Donald Trump’s 28-point plan to end the nearly four-year war with Russia.
Trump administration releases 28-point plan to end Russia-Ukraine war
Trump administration announces 28-point interim peace plan for Russia and Ukraine with territorial concessions and NATO restrictions
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has given Ukraine one week to respond to plans to give up land and reduce the size of its military as part of a peace deal with Russia that ends nearly four years of war.
President Trump’s proposal would see Ukraine give up territory in exchange for security guarantees from the United States and a pledge not to invade again from Russia, formally ending the war that Russia began in February 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is under pressure from the Trump administration to agree to a 28-point plan that U.S. officials formally presented to the government this week. The Kremlin has said the plan could form the basis of a peace agreement, but Ukraine supporters, including prominent Republican lawmakers, have criticized the plan, saying it would force Zelensky’s government to make territorial concessions.
“I think we have a way to make peace, or we have a way to make peace, and he’s going to have to approve it,” Trump said of Zelensky in the Oval Office on November 21.
What’s in President Trump’s 28-point plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war?
If the U.S.-led peace plan remains unchanged, the lines of conflict between Kherson and Zaporizhzhia will be frozen and Russia will retain almost all of the territory it currently occupies.
Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, will remain under Russian government control. The same could be said of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in eastern Ukraine.
Russian forces control most, but not all, of the Donetsk region. In other words, Russia would gain part of the territory it does not currently occupy. It will divide the electricity generated by Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia. President Vladimir Putin will also be welcomed back into the elite economic club of developed countries, alongside the United States and its most powerful allies.
As punishment for Russia for its unprovoked attack on Ukraine, Russia will lose financial assets previously frozen by the United States. Under President Trump’s plan, $100 billion worth of assets, mostly held in Europe, would be used to rebuild and invest in Ukraine, with the United States receiving 50% of the profits from the venture. Europe also plans to pay $100 billion to help rebuild Ukraine.
“The remainder of the frozen Russian funds will be invested in other U.S.-Russian investment vehicles implementing joint projects in specific fields,” the proposal said. “This fund aims to strengthen relations, increase common interests and create strong incentives not to return to conflict.”
Sanctions will be lifted on a case-by-case basis, and Russia will cooperate with the United States on artificial intelligence and rare earth metal mining projects in the Arctic.
Ukraine is also expected to make significant concessions. In addition to giving up land to Russia, Ukraine would abandon its bid to join NATO and agree to limit its military to 600,000 personnel. As of January, the country had an estimated 880,000 active duty employees.
The country will be admitted to the European Union and children forcibly taken from Ukraine will be returned. Ukraine must hold elections within 100 days of a wartime martial law suspension.
Zelenksi was elected to a five-year term in 2019, and his term would have ended in 2024 had there been no war. He indicated that he would not run for re-election.
President Trump gives Ukraine until Thanksgiving to evaluate plan
In a radio interview on Nov. 21, President Trump said he had given Ukraine a loose deadline of Nov. 27 to evaluate his proposal.
“We’ve had a lot of deadlines, and if things are going well, we tend to extend them, but we think Thursday is the right time,” Trump said on Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade Show.
These were the US president’s first public comments on the proposal since Axios revealed its existence earlier this week. White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said on November 20 that President Trump supports the plan led by special envoy Steve Witkoff.
“The President supports this plan. We believe it is a good plan for both Russia and Ukraine and should be acceptable to both,” Levitt said in a statement.
In a speech on November 21, President Zelensky said that pressure on Ukraine to accept the agreement was growing.
“Ukraine may now be facing a very difficult choice. Lose your dignity or risk losing an important partner. Either go through 28 difficult points or face an extremely difficult winter,” Zelensky said in translated remarks.
President Zelesky and President Putin react to peace plan supported by President Trump
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he is working “constructively” with the United States on a peace plan to end the war between Ukraine and Russia.
President Trump’s plan draws fierce reaction from Ukraine supporters
Mr. Trump’s proposal has drawn harsh criticism from supporters of Ukraine, including some Republicans who typically align with the second-term president.
“A negotiated settlement that allows President Putin to claim victory by recognizing Russia’s claims to Ukrainian territory would reverse the progress President Trump made in restoring lost deterrence under the Biden administration,” former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote in X.
Pompeo served the entire first term of the Trump administration.
“There are real problems with the so-called ‘peace plan,'” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, a Republican representing Mississippi, said in a statement. Wicker said the plan’s suggestion that the United States might work with a “serial liar-killer like Putin” on nuclear arms control should be treated with skepticism.
“Ukraine should not be forced to cede its land to Vladimir Putin, one of the world’s most egregious war criminals.” “And the guarantees provided to President Putin must not reward his malign actions or undermine the security of the United States or our allies.”
President Trump said on Kilmeade’s show that if Ukraine doesn’t reach a deal now, it will lose territory to Russia anyway. The president also dismissed concerns that Putin would set his sights on neighboring NATO countries if unchecked in Ukraine.
“They will be stopped. He doesn’t want another war. He’s been punished,” Trump said.
Russia claims President Trump’s plan could be the basis for reconciliation
U.S. officials say the proposal is preliminary and is being discussed with both countries after Trump’s proposal was leaked to journalists. The 28-point plan was obtained by USA TODAY and other news outlets and published online hours after the Trump administration formally presented it to Ukraine.
President Putin said on November 21 that President Trump’s proposal “could form the basis of a final peace agreement” but that it had not been discussed in detail with Russia. He said if Ukraine did not agree to the plan, its forces would be defeated on the battlefield.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and a delegation of U.S. military leaders discussed the proposal with President Zelensky during a visit to Kyiv this week.
President Zelenskiy said after his meeting with Driscoll that our country does not want to lose the support of the United States and does not want to be seen as undermining negotiations. But he said he continues to believe that Russia has no real desire for peace.
Zelensky consults with Ukrainian allies, discusses plans with J.D. Vance
The Ukrainian leader has been on the phone with Western allies, and said he spoke on the phone for nearly an hour with Driscoll and Vice President J.D. Vance on Nov. 21 to discuss the details of the proposal.
“We are working to ensure that the path forward towards achieving lasting peace is dignified and truly effective,” Zelensky said in a post on X. “Ukraine has always respected and will continue to respect US President Donald Trump’s desire to end the bloodshed. We look forward to any realistic proposals.”
Mr. Vance voted against aid to Ukraine as a senator and clashed with Mr. Zelensky in the Oval Office earlier this year. He is generally seen as more isolationist than Trump and said at a Nov. 20 event hosted by Breitbart News that he wants to normalize economic relations between Russia and Ukraine.
Contributor: Kim Hjelmgaard
