Amid warnings from Trump’s team…
During his latest appearance at the Kennedy Center, President Donald Trump aired out his frustration with the Ukrainian position on the latest U.S.-proposed peace deal, which neither Kyiv nor Moscow had yet publicly committed to supporting.
“We’ve been speaking to President Putin, and we’ve been speaking to Ukrainian leaders, including President Zelensky,” Trump told reporters. “I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelensky hasn’t yet read the proposal — that was as of a few hours ago.”
The U.S. initially presented Kyiv with a 28-point peace plan that critics derided as tantamount to Ukrainian capitulation. The blueprint was widely viewed as pro-Russian because it called on Ukraine to relinquish most of its industrial heartland and accept limits on the size of its military. Even so, Moscow stopped short of fully endorsing the proposal, although Russian President Vladimir Putin said it could “form the basis for future agreements.”
After subsequent U.S.-Ukraine talks, the plan was pared down to 19 points. However, major issues — including territorial control and future Western security guarantees for Ukraine — remained unresolved.
Presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have since traveled to Moscow to meet with Putin. They have also met with Ukrainian representatives as they worked to solidify a potential framework for a future peace deal. According to Russian officials, the five-hour Kremlin talks were “constructive,” though no agreement was reached.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian and European leaders remain skeptical, and the conflict continues — including long-range Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure over the weekend.
Zelensky posted to social media Sunday, “Ukraine deserves a dignified peace, and whether there will be peace depends entirely on Russia — on our collective pressure on Russia and on the sound negotiating positions of the United States, Europe, and all our other partners.”
He added, “Russia must be held accountable for what it is doing — for the daily strikes, for the constant terror against our people, and for the war itself.”
“We are starting a new diplomatic week,” Zelensky said in posts to social media, noting that Ukrainian representatives would be meeting with European counterparts in the coming days. The Ukrainian president himself traveled to the United Kingdom on Monday.
Zelensky said the most pressing questions included “security issues, support for our resilience, and support packages for our defense.” For the latter, “air defense and long-term funding for Ukraine” are Kyiv’s prime concerns, he added.
While in London, he met with top European leaders, including U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, at 10 Downing Street.
European allies reaffirmed their support for Ukraine and rejected calls for Kyiv to cede territory to Russia, particularly in the resource-rich Donbas region. Zelensky reiterated that Ukraine will not surrender land as part of any peace deal.
After the meeting, European leaders underlined their commitment to security guarantees for Ukraine, continued military and financial assistance, and a peace process that does not reward Russian aggression.
Zelensky also said the Ukrainian negotiating team held “substantive discussions” with U.S. envoys in recent days, and that Kyiv’s delegation, led by National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov and Chief of the General Staff Andrii Hnatov, has returned to Europe.
Afterward, President Trump’s eldest son, Don Jr., suggested his father might walk away from Ukraine altogether if Kyiv doesn’t move toward a peace deal with Russia, Politico reported.
Still, the U.S.-backed peace proposal remains deeply unpopular in Kyiv and among many European leaders.
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I support most of Trump’s positions. He is absolutely wrong on Ukraine. Putin should get nothing except a bill for reparations