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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that the country risks having to choose between losing US support or forfeiting its dignity in a harsh peace with Russia, as Washington heaped pressure on Kyiv to sign a deal drawn up with Moscow by Thursday.
Zelenskyy’s comments, made in a television address to the nation on Friday, came the day after the US presented him with a 28-point plan that crossed several of Kyiv’s long-held red lines, and as Ukraine’s European allies depicted the new proposals as a “capitulation” to Moscow’s demands.
“Now Ukraine may find itself facing a very difficult choice — either loss of dignity, or the risk of losing a key partner,” Zelenskyy said, telling Ukrainians that they faced “one of the most difficult moments in our history”.
The plan, drafted by aides to US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, calls for Kyiv to cede swaths of land under its control. It contains further big concessions to Moscow, including banning any Ukrainian membership of Nato.
Trump told Fox News on Friday that Ukraine had “got to give up some land that they have not lost in the war”.
He added: “We are in it for one thing, we want the killing to stop . . . They lost 25,000 people last month, between the two countries . . . It’s out of control. It’s a bloodbath.”
Zelenskyy said he would not reject the initiative out of hand but would “offer alternatives” and “work calmly with America and all partners”.
The plan is the latest effort by Trump to end the war in Ukraine, which began with Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Putin said on Friday that the plan had not been discussed with Russia “in detail”, but added that Ukraine was against it.
Ukrainian officials said the US expected Zelenskyy to sign the agreement “before Thanksgiving”, which falls on Thursday.
Trump told Fox that “we think [that Thursday] is an appropriate time” but suggested the deadline could be extended.
In a sign of the increasing pressure on Kyiv, the American side had “signalled” that vital US intelligence and weapons deliveries could be halted if Zelenskyy did not sign up to the proposal, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Zelenskyy’s administration has told allies that Kyiv felt it needed to engage with the proposal, but wanted European capitals to oppose it and attempt to convince Trump to change course, according to officials briefed on the discussions.
Following an hour-long phone call with JD Vance, the US vice-president, Zelenskyy said they had discussed the plan and “we’re working to make the path forward dignified and truly effective for achieving a lasting peace”.
In a day of frantic diplomacy, Zelenskyy and the leaders of France, Germany and the UK insisted that the current front line between Ukrainian and Russian-controlled territories should be the “starting point for any understanding”.
They added that “the Ukrainian armed forces remain capable of effectively defending Ukraine’s sovereignty”.
The call between the leaders is set to be followed by in-person meetings at the G20 summit in Johannesburg. It came as European capitals reeled at the scale of US pressure on Ukraine to agree to it, according to people involved in the talks.
“We’re all still analysing it, but it’s moving much faster than we had realised,” one of the people said. “It basically means capitulation.”
A senior European official said: “We’re back to square one,” referring to widespread fears at the start of this year that Trump would force Kyiv to accept Russia’s peace demands or lose US military support.
The US cut off intelligence sharing and slowed weapons deliveries this year, but later provided intelligence to help guide Ukraine’s strikes on Russian energy sites.
The latest plan has alarmed European governments not just because of the proposed recognition of the Ukrainian territories of Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk as “de facto Russian” but also because of a suggested ban on Nato forces in Ukraine.
Under the plan, US sanctions would be lifted in stages and Moscow would be invited to rejoin the G8 group of highly industrialised nations — ending its years of international isolation after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and forced annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The proposal would also deploy $100bn of frozen Russian sovereign assets in reconstruction projects profiting the US.
The emergence of the plan sent prices for Ukraine’s distressed dollar debt higher, with the bond due in 2035 climbing 1.5 cents to more than 52 cents on the dollar, extending its gains in recent days to 10 per cent.
European defence stocks, which have soared this year as the continent has stepped up its spending commitments, dropped on Friday, with the Stoxx aerospace and defence index closing 3.6 per cent lower.
Oil prices also fell, with Brent crude down 1.8 per cent to $62.83 a barrel.
Additional reporting by Ben Hall, Emily Herbert, Laura Pitel, Anna Gross and Fabrice Deprez