Zelensky says Ukraine ready for ‘honest work’ on Trump peace plan that would cede land to Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said after meeting with top Pentagon officials on Thursday that Kyiv is ready to work with the US on a 28-point plan to end the war that would see it make significant territorial concessions to Russia and pledge not to join NATO.

According to the text of the plan, published by several US media outlets as well as Ukrainian People’s Deputy Oleksiy Goncharenko on Thursday, Ukraine would surrender Crimea and Donbas to Russia, while the line of contact in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions would be frozen, meaning “de facto recognition” of Russian control over much of both.

Ukraine would also be forced to reduce the size of its army from almost 900,000 personnel to 600,000 and amend its constitution to formally renounce its goal of joining NATO. In return, Ukraine would be provided with “reliable security guarantees” by the US and European fighter jets would be stationed in Poland, the text said.

Russia, meanwhile, would be “reintegrated into the global economy” through the lifting of sanctions and invited to rejoin the G8. In addition, $100 billion in frozen Russian assets would be “invested in US-led efforts to rebuild and invest in Ukraine”, with the US to receive 50% of profits from the ventures.

In his nightly address to Ukrainians, Zelensky said a US military delegation, headed by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, had presented the plan in a “very serious conversation” in the Ukrainian capital on Thursday and that he would meet with US President Donald Trump in the coming days to discuss it further.

“From the first days of the war, we have upheld one very simple position: Ukraine needs peace,” Zelensky said, stressing that Kyiv was ready for “honest work” with the US on the proposals but that a peace deal should “respect our independence, our sovereignty and the dignity of the Ukrainian people”.

The US plan echoes the maximalist peace terms repeatedly put forward by Vladimir Putin and Kremlin officials since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

It was reportedly drafted primarily by Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with input from Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev but no consultations with Kyiv or its European allies. Earlier this week, Dmitriev praised the Trump administration’s approach to ending the war, saying Moscow felt its position was “really being heard”.

While a report by Axios on Wednesday suggested that Zelensky was “not interested” in discussing the plan, The Financial Times (FT) reported on Thursday that the Trump administration was pushing Zelensky to sign the agreement by Thanksgiving on 27 November as the US pursues an “aggressive” timeline to end the war this year.

That timeline is “highly unlikely”, however, with Kyiv working on counterproposals as several of the US plan’s points cross its red lines, the FT said. According to The Wall Street Journal, European leaders also hope to present a “more favourable” plan to Kyiv over the coming days.